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NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •  BOSTON  •  CHICAGO  •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •  SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


NEW  IDEALS  IN 
BUSINESS 


AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THEIR  PRACTICE  AND 
THEIR  EFFECTS  UPON  MEN  AND  PROFITS 


BY 

IDA  M.  TARBELL 

Author  of  “The  History  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,” 
“The  Tariff  In  Our  Times,”  “The  Business 
of  Being  a  Woman,”  etc, 


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BOSTON  COLLEGE  SCHOOL 
BUSINESS  AOMIN. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


1916 


All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  19U,  1915, 

By  THE  CROWELL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1916, 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.  Published,  November,  1916. 


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Xtt340'7 


INTRODUCTION 


This  book  had  its  starting  point  in  two  earlier 
pieces  of  work,  one  a  study  of  a  typical  American 
trust  —  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  the  other  a 
study  of  the  workings  of  the  protective  tariff  since 
the  Civil  War.  Both  took  me  far  and  wide  as  an 
observer  in  the  industrial  field.  Although  my  ob¬ 
servations  in  neither  case  included  the  relations  be¬ 
tween  management  and  men  in  the  various  plants  I 
visited,  I  found  my  attention  constantly  veering  to 
them,  largely  because  they  were  often  in  sharp  con¬ 
trast  to  those  which  I  had  reason  to  believe  were 
fairly  general  in  this  country. 

The  wider  my  observation  of  our  working  life 
extended,  the  more  I  was  impressed  that  there  were 
forces  at  work  which,  properly  developed,  were 
bound  to  overcome  many,  if  not  all,  of  the  industrial 
evils  with  which  we  have  become  so  familiar. 

Some  four  years  ago  the  then  editor  of  The  Amer¬ 
ican  Magazine  encouraged  me  to  undertake  spe¬ 
cial  and  careful  observation  to  corroborate  my  im¬ 
pression.  In  carrying  out  his  idea,  I  visited  scores 
of  industrial  centres,  sometimes  alone,  sometimes 
under  guidance.  I  talked  with  hundreds  of  men  and 
women;  president  and  directors  of  companies;  super¬ 
intendents;  foremen;  consulting  engineers;  safety 

;] 


INTRODUCTION' 


and  sanitation  experts;  industrial  nurses;  men  at  the 
furnace,  the  loom  or  lathe;  girls  at  the  spinning- 
frame,  the  canning  table,  the  counter.  To  see  at 
their  work  all  the  men  and  women  in  a  plant,  from 
those  with  a  shovel  or  scrubbing-brush  to  those  in 
the  head  offices;  to  look  at  their  conditions,  to  see 
them  in  their  homes,  to  learn  from  their  lips  what 
they  thought  and  felt  about  it  all, —  this  has  been 
my  method.  My  observations  turned  my  first  im¬ 
pression  to  conviction  and  were  partially  recorded  in 
a  series  of  articles  which  were  published  by  the 
American  Magazine  under  the  title  of  “  The  Golden 
Rule  in  Business.” 

However  great  the  lack  of  efficiency  and  justice 
in  American  industry,  it  is  undergoing  a  silent  revo¬ 
lution.  This  revolution  is  centred  in  industrial  man¬ 
agement.  Back  of  it  lies  a  belated  realisation  that 
the  responsibility  for  the  weaknesses  and  unrest  of 
our  industrial  life  does  not  rest  with  the  American 
workman,  but  with  his  employer. 

The  stability  of  this  new  movement  lies  in  the  fact 
that  management  is  summoning  to  its  aid  great 
forces  which  it  has  hitherto  believed  to  have  little  or 
no  part  in  its  function.  It  has  summoned  science, 
and  growing  numbers  of  American  business  mana¬ 
gers  are  holding  that  there  is  no  task  which  men  per¬ 
form  which  should  not  be  studied  scientifically. 

The  new  management  employs  not  only  science 
but  humanity,  and  by  humanity  I  do  not  mean  merely 
or  chiefly  sympathy  but  rather  a  larger  thing,  the 
recognition  that  all  men,  regardless  of  race,  origin 


INTRODUCTION 


or  experience,  have  powers  for  greater  things  than 
has  been  believed.  I  doubt,  indeed,  if  there  has 
been  any  economic  and  social  gain  in  the  last  fifty 
years  which  equals  this  growing  conviction  of  the 
Powers  of  the  Common  Man. 

Nothing  can  stifle  these  new  ideals  of  Industry. 
Not  only  are  the  human  heart  and  human  intelli¬ 
gence  with  them,  but  human  competition  is  forc¬ 
ing  them.  It  is  with  the  actual  attempts  to  rise 
to  them  that  this  book  deals.  Nothing  is  intro¬ 
duced  which  I  have  not  seen  in  operation ;  noth¬ 
ing  which  has  not  seemed  to  me  to  be  good  for  the 
worker,  skilled  and  unskilled;  nothing  which  has  not 
been  carried  to  a  point  of  profit;  nothing  which  an 
active  intelligence  and  a  just  spirit  cannot  realise. 

Ida  M.  Tarbell. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 
VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 


Our  New  Workshops 
“  A  Fine  Place  to  Work  ”  . 

The  Gospel  of  Safety  . 

Health  for  Everyman  . 

“  Sober  First  ” 

Good  Homes  Make  Good  Workers 
A  Man’s  Hours  ..... 

A  Man’s  Hire  ...... 

Experiments  in  Justice  . 
Steadying  the  Job  .  .  . 

The  Factory  as  a  School  w 
Our  New  Industrial  Leader 


r.i 


L.J 


PAGE 

I 

.  29 

.  50 

•  77 
.  no 

.  134 

.  163 

•  193 
.  222 
.  258 
.  290 
w  317 


M  [•] 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


CHAPTER  I 

OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 

He  who  turns  out  early  in  the  morning  sees  a 
wonderful  sight.  It  is  the  incoming  tide  of  work¬ 
ers.  They  have  the  streets,  the  cars,  and  the  ferries 
to  themselves.  The  rest  of  the  world  is  still  within 
doors.  Spend  a  night  near  the  Stock  Yards  of 
Chicago,  or  in  any  factory  town,  and  you  will  be 
awakened  by  a  sound  like  that  of  a  rising  wind.  It 
gradually  resolves  itself  into  a  steady  tramp,  tramp, 
tramp.  For  an  hour  they  pour  by  in  the  grey  light 
—  a  silent,  grave  and  steady  army  of  hundreds  upon 
hundreds  of  men  and  women,  girls  and  boys.  You 
may  follow  them  to  the  yards  or  factories.  There 
the  gates  close  on  them.  It  will  be  8,  io,  possibly 
12,  hours  before  they  turn  back. 

Stand  at  the  Jersey  ferries,  the  New  York  end  of 
Brooklyn  Bridge,  at  the  downtown  stations  of  the 
elevated  or  subway  in  any  great  city,  and  from  six 
to  nine  o’clock  the  flow  of  human  beings  is  like  the 
emptying  of  mighty  chutes  fed  from  exhaustless  hop¬ 
pers.  In  the  crowds  there  is  little  of  the  silence 
and  dignity  of  the  stream  which  flows  into  the  Stock 


2 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Yards  or  the  factories  of  the  small  towns  and  coun¬ 
trysides.  These  masses  push  and  scramble  and 
rush.  They  are  not  quiet  like  the  others.  They 
chatter  and  chaff  and  “  jaw.” 

There  are  still  other  waves  in  this  morning  tide. 
There  are  those  who  go  down  into  the  earth.  They 
come  leisurely  out  of  the  grey  morning  light  to  the 
head  of  the  shafts.  They  are  checked,  searched  for 
matches,  given  lanterns,  then  they  disappear.  It 
will  be  dusk  when  they  come  out. 

What  kind  of  places  are  those  into  which  this 
mighty  tide  disappears,  in  which  it  spends  the  bulk 
of  its  waking  hours,  and  practically  all  its  hours  of 
sunshine?  The  men  and  women  wrho  do  the  labour 
of  the  world  are  the  most  important  factor  in  the 
thing  we  call  “  prosperity.”  It  is  only  from  them 
that  we  can  expect  the  robust  and  unfettered  vital¬ 
ity  which  drives  the  world  to  new  efforts.  It  is 
only  they  who  are  equal  to  the  mighty  task  of  dis¬ 
posing  of  the  fruits  of  their  own  toil.  Everything 
which  concerns  them  directly  or  indirectly  is  of  the 
greatest  economic  importance.  No  one  who  knows 
anything  of  human  beings  and  the  forces  which  in¬ 
fluence  them  will  deny  that  to  a  large  degree  their 
health,  their  content,  and  their  efficiency  depend 
upon  their  surroundings.  Workshops  matter. 
They  can  pull  men  and  women  down  or  hold  them 
steady,  stimulate  them  —  as  they  are  ugly  and  un¬ 
healthful,  or,  bright  and  fitted  to  human  needs. 

The  world  has  been  slow  in  admitting  this,  but  it 
has  been  slow  in  admitting  that  the  worker  mat- 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


3 


tered.  He  has  come  cheap  through  all  the  ages,  and 
men  in  power  have  built  up  theories  to  keep  him 
cheap.  He  did  not  feel  hardships,  comfort  would 
spoil  him.  Couple  these  ideas  with  the  grim  no¬ 
tion  that  the  curse  of  Cain  was  on  labour  and  that  it 
was  not  for  a  devout  man  to  interfere  with  the  ways 
of  the  Lord,  and  you  have  a  partial  explanation  of 
the  Old  World’s  indifference  to  the  conditions  of  its 
workshops. 

These  ideas  have  been  slowly  dying  in  the  New 
World.  Our  indifference  has  come  from  another 
source.  You  cannot  settle  a  new  country  without 
suffering,  exposure,  and  danger.  Cheerful  endur- . 
ance  of  hardships  and  contempt  of  surroundings  be¬ 
come  a  virtue  in  a  pioneer.  Comfort  is  a  compara¬ 
tively  new  thing  in  the  United  States. 

Men  and  women  are  still  living  who  can  remem¬ 
ber  the  introduction  of  the  bathroom.  We  can  re¬ 
member,  too,  perhaps  have  shared,  the  pious  fear 
that  the  softening  of  life  and  the  relaxing  of  con¬ 
scious  endurance  of  physical  discomforts  which 
wealth  was  bringing  to  the  country  were  going  to 
weaken  our  national  fibre.  It  was  inevitable  that 
this  attitude  of  the  well-to-do  property  class  toward 
conditions  in  their  own  circle  should  extend  to  those 
whom  they  employed.  Thirty  years  ago  there  was 
scarcely  any  complaint  of  labour  that  aroused  more 
righteous  indignation  from  the  housewife,  mine 
owner,  manufacturer,  than  this  one  of  conditions. 

To-day  it  is  the  employer  himself  who  is  insisting 
that  the  best  possible  workshops  are  none  too  good. 


4 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Indeed,  there  is  no  problem  which  Industry  is  at¬ 
tacking  with  more  interest  and  intelligence  than  that 
of  the  conditions  under  which  labour  of  all  kinds 
shall  be  done.  It  begins  with  the  basic  matter  of 
the  building.  The  new  model  factory  is  the  most 
interesting  architectural  development  in  the  coun¬ 
try,  far  more  original  and  exciting  than  most  of  our 
pretentious  public  and  private  buildings. 

It  is  not  our  architects  who  are  responsible  for  the 
revolution  in  factory  architecture.  It  is  the  em¬ 
ployer  himself.  Some  eight  years  ago  when  the 
head  of  a  great  and  growing  company  in  Rochester, 
New  York,  began  to  think  of  a  new  factory,  he  found 
that  if  he  was  to  get  what  he  wanted  he  must  do 
pioneer  work.  Taking  a  mechanical  engineer  and 
an  architect  with  him,  he  visited  some  150  different 
plants,  the  best  of  which  he  could  learn.  He  took 
full  notes  on  every  point  which  entered  into  his 
problem  —  foundations,  flooring,  ventilation,  light¬ 
ing,  opportunities  for  expansion,  relation  of  offices 
and  show  rooms  to  factory,  lunch  rooms,  rest  rooms, 
club  room,  opportunity  for  exercise  both  within  and 
without  doors,  probably  the  most  important  collec¬ 
tion  of  information  on  factory  building  ever  gath¬ 
ered  in  this  country.  On  this  as  a  basis,  he  reared 
a  plant  in  the  centre  of  an  eight-acre  field,  which 
from  every  point  of  view,  conveniences,  fitness, 
strength,  economy,  is  a  model.  One  point  of  par¬ 
ticular  pride  with  the  builder  is  that  there  are  only 
two  features  of  his  factory  which  cannot  be  called 
necessary.  They  are  the  cornice  and  the  handsome 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


5 


marquee  over  the  entrance.  If  not  necessary,  they 
give  a  touch  of  elegance  to  the  severe  fagade  which 
is  their  justification. 

There  are  many  signs  no  employer  will  ever 
again  be  obliged  to  do  what  this  gentleman  did. 
To  begin  with,  his  information  has  been  freely  put 
at  the  disposal  of  his  townsmen  who  have  built  since 
he  did.  Moreover,  his  work  and  that  of  other  like- 
minded  manufacturers  has  begun  to  awaken  archi¬ 
tects  to  the  opportunity  of  real  service  which 
lies  in  this  field.  One  has  only  to  look  at  such  work 
as  has  been  done  in  the  factories  of  Detroit  by 
Kahn  &  Wilby,  or  at  the  admirable  group  of  build¬ 
ings  at  Nela  Park  near  Cleveland  by  Wallis  & 
Goodwillie  to  realise  what  a  sound  and  admir¬ 
able  beginning  our  architects  have  made.  The 
Nela  Park  group  is  particularly  interesting,  since 
it  provides  a  plant  which  makes  possible  a  higher  de¬ 
gree  of  co-operation  between  the  different  depart¬ 
ments  of  a  great  modern  industry  than  exists  prob¬ 
ably  elsewhere  in  the  United  States.  It  is  a  re¬ 
markably  successful  realisation  of  a  great  industrial 
dream. 

Nela  Park  is  the  headquarters  of  The  National 
Lamp  Company.  This  concern  is  under  the  con¬ 
trol  of  two  men  who  believe  that  production  can  be 
more  profitably  carried  on  in  small  than  in  large 
units.  One  believes  500  operatives  in  a  factory  are 
the  best  number  —  the  other  300,  so  as  they  build 
plants,  they  alternate:  There  are  some  25  factories 
in  the  company.  Each  is  as  far  as  its  management  is 


6 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


concerned  a  self-directing  concern.  Once  a  year  the 
heads  of  each  of  these  25  concerns  meet,  and  each 
is  obliged  to  show  his  record  in  detail  and  defend  it 
under  the  fire  of  criticism  of  both  the  officers  of  the 
company  and  all  of  the  competing  heads.  Their 
annual  test  of  records  lasts  sometimes  three  months, 
and  I  have  been  told  that  frequently  the  officers  are 
obliged  to  retire  to  a  sanitarium  after  it  is  over!  A 
few  years  ago  it  was  decided  to  establish  a  head¬ 
quarters  for  the  concern  outside  of  Cleveland  —  a 
point  where  all  executive  departments  could  be  in 
touch,  where  all  could  comfortably  foregather  for 
their  annual  meetings,  and  where  the  sales  force 
could  meet  in  summer  camp.  The  idea  grew  in  the 
minds  of  the  management.  Fortunately  they  se¬ 
cured  an  architect  in  Mr.  Wallis  who  appreciated 
the  opportunity  industry  offers  his  profession,  and 
he  eagerly  set  himself  to  work  out  something  which 
would  show  the  value  to  industry  of  a  proper  appli¬ 
cation  of  form,  of  colour  and  of  design.  To  Mr. 
Wallis,  Nela  Park  ought  to  be  an  “  Industrial  Uni¬ 
versity,”  and  that  is  what  it  is  —  a  place  of  educa¬ 
tion,  and  as  truly  an  inspiration  to  those  who  belong 
to  it  as  any  university  group  of  buildings  in  the 
country  is  an  inspiration. 

Nela  Park  represents  one  industry.  It  focuses 
the  financial,  administrative,  purchasing,  manufac¬ 
turing,  distributing  and  marketing  agencies  in  such 
a  way  that  all  can  see  something  of  the  true  relation 
and  nature  of  the  present  elements  in  the  problem 
of  big  business.  It  is  a  great  and  compelling  ob- 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


7 


ject  lesson  in  the  co-operative  and  interdependent 
character  of  the  various  elements  of  modern  industry, 
extraordinarily  educative  and  inspiring  in  its  sug¬ 
gestiveness;  but  it  is  applicable  only  to  the  highly 
developed  concerns. 

An  even  more  exciting  and  far  reaching  develop¬ 
ment  than  the  “  industrial  university  ”  is  the  indus¬ 
trial  town  centre,  the  effort  to  set  aside  in  cities  dis¬ 
tricts  where  model  factories  strictly  regulated  by 
city  ordinances  may  be  erected.  They  are  to  be 
planned  with  relation  to  the  districts  from  which 
labour  is  drawn,  with  regard  to  transportation,  to 
open  air  space,  and  to  saloons,  and  they  are  to  be 
made  beautiful  as  well  as  convenient  and  suitable. 
The  Minneapolis  Industrial  Association  is  leading 
the  way  in  this  planning.  The  City  Plan  Committee 
of  New  York  has  made  a  start.  It  is  for  the  archi¬ 
tects  to  rally  to  this  movement  as  they  have  to 
the  civic  centre.  It  is  an  even  greater  opportunity. 
It  will  affect  more  men  and  women,  and  affect  them 
where  they  really  live. 

The  new  Bureau  of  Printing  and  Engraving  in 
.Washington  gives  an  excellent  opportunity  to  com¬ 
pare  good,  modern  factory  architecture  with  the 
adaptation  to  factory  purposes  of  classic  design. 
As  this  bureau  belongs  in  the  noble  scheme  of  pub¬ 
lic  buildings  it  was  imperative  that  its  facade  should 
harmonise  with  the  other  members  of  the  group. 
In  approaching  it,  one  sees  merely  another  white 
marble  structure  of  great  dignity  and  beauty,  en¬ 
tirely  in  keeping  with  everything  from  the  Congres- 


8 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


sional  Library  to  the  Potomac,  but  the  last  thing 
that  one  would  think  of  was  that  this  was  a  factory. 
Go  to  the  rear,  and  immediately  you  have  an  entirely 
different  impression.  The  four  wings,  each  five 
stories  in  height,  are  practically  of  glass,  yet  the 
disposition  of  cornice  and  pillar  is  such  as  to  give 
both  dignity  and  beauty  while  preserving  fitness. 

Two  things  attract  at  once  in  the  modern  factory: 
they  are  no  longer  low,  they  are  no  longer  dark. 
The  first  consideration,  indeed,  in  all  modern  fac¬ 
tories  is  light.  To  do  good  work  men  must  see,  and 
to  see  they  must  have  plenty  of  light.  The  only 
light  that  costs  nothing  is  daylight,  hence  men  build 
their  shops  practically  of  glass.  The  effect  of  this 
on  the  interior  is  almost  startling  to  one  who  has 
never  in  his  life  been  in  anything  but  our  sepulchral 
houses,  offices,  churches  and  theatres.  It  is  almost 
like  being  in  the  open. 

Go  back  to  the  textile  factories  of  1850,  the  fac¬ 
tories  which  the  owners  in  those  days  called  “  pal¬ 
aces,”  so  great  an  improvement  were  they  upon  the 
garrets  and  sheds  in  which  spinning  and  weaving  had 
frequently  been  carried  on,  compare  them  with  what 
we  have  to-day,  and  something  of  the  gain  is  evi¬ 
dent.  The  old  building  was  a  solid  brick  or  stone 
structure  with  many  small  windows  fitted  with  small 
panes  of  glass.  As  the  operative  went  to  work  at 
five  o’clock  in  the  morning  and  did  not  stop  until 
six  or  seven,  artificial  light  was  necessary  for  a  num¬ 
ber  of  hours.  Candles  and  whale  oil  lamps  were 
used  literally  by  the  hundreds.  There  was  prac- 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


9 


tically  no  ventilation,  so  that  the  workrooms  were 
filled  with  smoke  and  stench.  The  coming  of  kero¬ 
sene  made  matters  a  little,  not  much,  better.  The 
shortening  of  hours  helped  greatly.  Gas  and  elec¬ 
tricity  still  further  improved  things;  nevertheless, 
there  has  been,  until  recently,  in  this  country  two 
hours  of  the  day  when  our  manufacturing  was  done 
practically  in  the  dark. 

The  economic  waste  of  this  has  been  enormous. 
As  for  the  effect  on  the  worker  —  eyestrain,  head¬ 
ache,  lack  of  interest,  moodiness,  are  inevitable  re¬ 
sults  of  trying  to  do  tasks  in  dim  light.  It  has  been 
believed  by  many  and  so  stated  that  accidents  are 
more  frequent  in  the  dark  hours  of  the  day  and  in 
the  dark  seasons  of  the  year.  The  most  trustworthy 
statistics  do  not  bear  this  out.  The  safety  director 
of  the  Youngstown  (Ohio)  Sheet  and  Tube  Com¬ 
pany,  J.  M.  Woltz,  in  a  study  of  a  year’s  accidents 
in  his  plant  shows  that  the  high  points  of  the  day 
are  from  9  to  9  159  A.  M.  and  from  3  to  3  159  P.  M. 
The  high  point  of  the  year  in  his  study  is  August. 
Mr.  Woltz’s  chart  follows  the  lines  of  those  of  the 
German  Government  covering  twenty-five  years  and 
is  close  to  those  of  the  Department  of  Labor  of  the 
United  States  published  in  1910. 

The  International  Harvester  Company  was  one 
of  the  first  concerns  to  realise  the  evil  of  dark  shops. 
The  Harvester  Company  carries  on  probably  twenty 
different  trades.  About  ten  years  ago  the  officials 
wakened  to  the  fact  that  they  were  doing  nothing  to 
conserve  their  most  vital  asset,  their  men  and 


10 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


women.  Fortunately  for  them  they  had  in  their 
employ  at  that  time  a  man  who  for  several  years 
had  been  fitting  himself  for  exactly  what  they 
needed  done.  His  name  was  C.  W.  Price. 

It  must  have  been  twenty  years  ago  that  Mr. 
Price,  as  a  young  man  in  business  in  Iowa,  became 
interested  in  various  forms  of  philanthropic  work  in 
his  home  town.  For  a  number  of  years  he  read 
books  on  sociology,  with  the  hope  of  getting  a  prac¬ 
tical  basis  for  action.  To  get  nearer  to  his  problem 
Mr.  Price  took  a  position  in  the  McCormick  factory 
in  Chicago.  In  this  factory  he  had  charge  of  a  de¬ 
partment  which  brought  him  into  close  touch  with 
all  the  foremen  in  the  shop  and  gave  him  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  study  at  first-hand  the  conditions  under 
which  men  are  employed  in  modern  industry.  Fie 
spent  some  five  years  in  practical  shopwork  before 
he  was  given  a  chance  by  the  officers  of  the  company 
to  take  full  charge  of  its  welfare  work. 

Five  years  ago  an  attack  was  made  on  the  bad 
lighting  general  in  all  the  plants.  A  committee  on 
which  there  were  seven  electrical  engineers  besides 
Mr.  Price  was  appointed  to  study  the  problem. 
This  committee  spent  some  six  months  investigating 
what  had  been  done  by  other  companies  and  in  ex¬ 
perimenting  in  its  own  shops.  It  worked  out  stand¬ 
ards  covering  the  type  of  lamp,  the  type  of  reflector, 
the  amount  of  light  per  square  foot  in  shops  where 
there  was  no  gas,  the  amount  of  light  per  square 
foot  where  there  was  gas  and  smoke,  spacing  be¬ 
tween  the  lamps  and  also  the  height  of  the  lamp 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


1 1 


from  the  floor.  These  standards  were  at  once  ap¬ 
plied  in  twenty-two  different  plants.  * 

From  the  Harvester  Company,  Mr.  Price  went 
later  to  serve  as  an  expert  to  the  Industrial  Com¬ 
mission  of  Wisconsin.  When  shop  lighting  was 
taken  up  by  the  commission,  he  had  his  solid  expe¬ 
rience  to  contribute.  The  commission  and  Mr. 
Price  were  ambitious,  however,  to  do  something 
still  better,  and  to  embody  their  findings  in  a  bulle¬ 
tin  which  everybody  in  and  out  of  the  State  could 
use. 

The  working  methods  of  this  commission  are 
purely  co-operative  and  democratic.  It  never  at¬ 
tempts  to  fix  a  standard  or  suggest  a  law  which  has 
not  been  considered  by  representatives  of  all  of 
those  concerned  in  the  matter.  For  instance,  when 
shop  lighting  came  up,  a  committee  was  appointed 
made  up  of  employers,  representatives  of  labour 
unions,  the  commission  and  Mr.  Price. 

To  aid  them  they  drew  upon  the  investigations 
and  experiences  of  various  local  industries,  especially 
those  of  the  Pfister  &  Vogel  Leather  Company  of 
Milwaukee.  Pfister  &  Vogel  had  done  the  best  piece 
of  shop  lighting  in  the  State.  Their  chief  electri¬ 
cian,  Fred  Schwarze,  who  was  responsible  for  it,  put 
his  experience  at  the  service  of  the  commission. 

Many  weeks  of  joint  work  were  spent  over  the 
problem;  there  was  much  squabbling,  cries  of  “It 
can’t  be  done,”  “  It  won’t  work”;  but  at  the  end 
there  was  a  united  judgment  that  the  results  were 
the  most  scientific  and  practical  that  had  so  far  been 


12 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


developed.  The  bulletin  in  which  they  are  recorded 
is  followed  almost  without  a  whimper  by  Wisconsin 
manufacturers,  for  they  know  that  able  men  in  their 
own  businesses  have  had  a  part  in  framing  the  orders. 
To  aid  them  still  further  the  commission  has 
published  a  handbook  on  shop  lighting,  prepared  at 
its  request  in  “  barnyard  English  ”  by  Mr.  Schwarze, 
which  is  far  and  away  the  most  important  popular 
contribution  ever  made  to  the  subject,  an  easily  un¬ 
derstandable  scientific  treatise  based  on  his  own 
highly  successful  experience.* 

This  handling  of  shop  lighting  is  an  example  of 
the  way  in  which  the  Wisconsin  Industrial  Commis¬ 
sion  established  all  of  its  industrial  standards. 

What  is  true  of  lighting  is  true  of  ventilation. 
Workshops  are  rapidly  becoming  the  best  ventilated 
places  we  have.  Where  buildings  are  high,  with 
many  easily  adjusted  windows,  ventilation  is  a  much 
simpler  problem  than  in  the  low,  old-fashioned  build¬ 
ings  of  few  windows.  But  few  factories  of  any  de¬ 
scription  depend  now  on  windows  alone  for  air. 
Ventilating  plants  are  almost  invariably  installed  in 
new  factories,  and  thousands  upon  thousands  of  old 
plants  of  all  descriptions  have  equipped  themselves 
with  them. 

I  have  spent  hours  in  factories  of  all  kinds,  includ¬ 
ing  even  a  redeemed  tannery  and  laundry,  and  never 
for  a  moment  had  the  sense  of  suffocation  and  close¬ 
ness  so  common  in  drawing-rooms,  theatres,  and 
churches.  They  were  scientifically  ventilated  and 
the  temperature  was  rigidly  supervised.  At  the 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


13 


Brown  &  Sharpe  Manufacturing  Company  in  Provi¬ 
dence,  Rhode  Island,  the  proper  temperature  for 
each  room  has  been  set  by  careful  investigators. 
Placards  like  the  one  here  reproduced  are  on  the 
bulletin  boards  of  each  room,  and  a  temperature 
boss  sees  that  there  is  no  variation.  What  this 
amounts  to  is  that  labour  —  all  kinds  of  labour  — 
may  be  carried  on  in  perfectly  aired  and  heated 
shops,  that  the  old  notion  that  this  was  Utopian  is 
exploded  by  the  actual  experience  of  hundreds  of 
employers.  And  they  claim  that  it  pays ! 

TEMPERATURES 

In  order  to  secure  the  most  comfortable  conditions  for 
all,  the  following  standard  temperatures  will  be  maintained 


as  nearly  as  possible: 

Offices  and  Drafting  Rooms .  67°  to  69° 

Shop  Floors  and  Rooms  where  workmen  are 

mostly  seated  at  work .  67°  to  69° 

Shop  Floors  and  Rooms  where  workmen  are 

moderately  active  and  free  to  move  about .  65°  to  67° 

Foundry,  Smithshop  and  Carpenter 

Shops  . .  55°  to  65° 

Storage  Rooms  where  workmen  are  not  reg¬ 
ularly  employed .  40 0  to  50 0 


On  account  of  the  daily  range  of  temperature,  the  rooms 
may  be  2°  to  50  cooler  than  the  above  standards  during  the 
early  morning  hours. 

Brown  &  Sharpe  Mfg.  Co. 

The  changes  in  the  factory  with  which  the  public 
is  most  familiar  are  those  which  go  under  the  gen- 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


14 

eral  head  of  welfare  work.  An  enormous  contribu¬ 
tion  to  human  health  and  comfort  is  being  made 
through  decent  toilets,  cloak-rooms,  lunch-  and  rest¬ 
rooms,  and  first-aid-to-the-injured  rooms.  The  dis¬ 
regard  of  the  common  physical  needs  of  men  and 
women  in  building  factories  in  the  past  would  be 
unbelievable  if  it  were  not  so  constantly  thrust  in 
our  faces. 

Four  years  ago  a  plant  covering  probably  fifty 
acres  on  the  outskirts  of  one  of  our  greatest  cities, 
an  investment  of  several  million  dollars,  was  looked 
over  by  a  young  woman  who  had  been  asked  to  take 
charge  of  a  department  of  social  service.  She 
found  that  at  that  time,  although  there  were  on  an 
average,  two  thousand  five  hundred  men,  daily  em¬ 
ployed,  there  was  not  a  toilet-room  on  the  property, 
and  there  was  but  one  drinking  fountain.  The  men 
were  obliged  to  go  to  one  of  the  many  near-by  saloons 
to  take  care  of  their  physical  necessities. 

I  doubt  if  it  will  ever  be  possible  in  this  country 
again  to  duplicate  the  above  neglect.  Welfare  ar¬ 
rangements  of  all  kinds  are  becoming  as  much  a 
concern  of  architects  and  builders  of  industrial  es¬ 
tablishments  as  foundations  and  lights. 

One  hears  welfare  work  much  sneered  at.  I  find 
a  rather  widespread  notion  that  it  is  only  introduced 
as  a  species  of  advertisement  or  as  a  sop  to  the  em¬ 
ployee.  Even  if  this  were  true,  it  is  a  better  use 
of  money  than  that  which  big  business  once  credited 
under  that  head.  It  is  not  so  many  years  ago  that  a 
witness  for  one  of  our  great  corporations  was  re- 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


15 


ported  as  saying  facetiously,  he  claims,  that  its  con¬ 
tributions  for  influencing  political,  opinion  were 
charged  to  “  welfare  work  ”  !  A  thousand  dollars 
spent  in  wash  basins,  even  if  the  wash  basins  are  much 
bragged  about,  is  a  better  sort  of  welfare  work. 

My  experience  with  this  new  factory  development 
has  convinced  me  that  those  who  use  these  improve¬ 
ments  as  advertisements  are  not  one  per  cent,  of  the 
total  that  make  them.  In  the  vast  majority  of  cases 
they  are  introduced  in  the  same  spirit  in  which 
men  put  bathrooms  into  old  houses  or  arrange  for 
them  as  a  matter  of  course  in  building  new  ones : 
because  they  have  come  to  recognise  that  they  are 
good  things  to  have.  Whatever  the  attitude  of 
mind  toward  these  decencies  and  conveniences  may 
once  have  been,  they  are  now  taken  for  granted  as  a 
necessary  part  of  a  factory. 

Of  course  there  are  still  boards  of  old-school  di¬ 
rectors  who  stew  about  the  expense  and  talk  about 
“  spoiling  the  workingman,”  but  they  are  growing 
fewer.  A  Chicago  board  of  directors,  examining 
the  estimate  for  a  new  factory  to  be  put  up  in  Wis¬ 
consin,  balked  at  the  estimates  for  shower  baths  and 
lockers  and  toilet-rooms.  “  Is  it  a  gentleman’s  club 
you  are  equipping?  ”  they  wrote  witheringly  on  the 
margin.  The  superintendent  came  back:  “It  is 
something  much  more  useful  to  the  community;  it  is 
a  shop  for  five  hundred  workingmen.”  The  esti¬ 
mate  was  O.K.’d  without  further  comment. 

There  is  no  feature  of  the  new  workshop  which 
gives  more  satisfaction  to  the  observer  than  the  new 


i6 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ideas  of  order  which  prevail  in  them.  Industry  has 
been  slow  in  learning  that  order  is  heaven’s  first 
law,  and  that  to  break  it  is  to  involve  yourself  in 
wasteful  and  exasperating  confusion. 

The  truth  has,  somewhat  late  however,  entered 
the  heads  of  some  of  the  most  obstinate  shop  man¬ 
agers  I  ever  met.  “  We  are  going  to  have  order  in 
this  rolling  mill  if  we  never  make  another  bar  of 
iron  in  the  place,”  I  heard  the  stern  manager  of  one 
of  the  big  plants  of  the  Steel  Corporation  say,  and 
he  had  it  —  had  it  in  a  factory  so  big  they  took  you 
around  in  a  railroad  train  to  see  it.  There  was  not 
a  shovel-load  of  dust  in  the  place,  though  they  were 
daily  using  hundreds  of  tons  of  ore  and  lime  and  coke. 
There  was  not  a  bar  of  pig  iron  out  of  place,  though 
there  were  three  thousand  men  making  them. 

One  of  the  several  great  services  of  Taylor’s  sys¬ 
tem  of  scientific  management  is  the  vivid  demon¬ 
stration  it  makes,  whenever  applied,  of  the  economic 
value  of  order.  To  appreciate  it  fully  one  should 
see  a  shop  of  the  old-fashioned  type  and  manage¬ 
ment  in  process  of  transformation.  I  had  such  an 
experience  once.  The  concern  was  a  large  and 
prosperous  one  which  had  grown  rapidly  and  had 
spread  in  the  sprawling  fashion  forced  on  the  city 
factory. 

An  enormous  number  of  different-sized  parts 
were  used  in  the  machines  put  out  by  the  concern, 
and  as  is  the  practice  in  the  average  old-fashioned 
shop  these  parts,  coming  from  foundry  or  machine- 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


17 


shop,  were  dumped  at  any  vacant  space,  in  the  ram¬ 
bling  collection  of  buildings,  sheds,  and  passage¬ 
ways.  A  man  never  knew  exactly  where  to  find  any 
of  the  parts  of  the  machine  he  was  assembling. 
Moreover,  he  never  was  certain  of  finding  at  his 
machine  the  tools  he  had  left  there  the  night  before. 

It  was  his  usual  habit  to  spend  the  first  half  hour 
or  more  in  the  morning  getting  things  together  and 
often  rowing  with  his  fellows  over  tools  which  he 
believed  they  had  taken  from  his  bench.  This  is  so 
characteristic  a  practice  that  it  is  no  unusual  thing 
for  workingmen  to  hide  their  tools  on  leaving  the 
shop  at  night. 

The  expert  who  was  putting  this  factory  on  a 
scientific  basis  at  once  attacked  the  prevalent  disor¬ 
der,  installing  Taylor’s  system  of  handling  stores 
and  tools.  This  system  is  a  wonderful  piece  of 
scientific  organisation,  a  delight  to  mind  and  eye. 
Once  installed  and  properly  run,  it  revolutionises  a 
shop.  It  did  so  in  this  case.  “  Hunting  ”  tools  and 
parts  was  forever  done  away  with.  Everything  was 
in  its  place,  and  a  responsible  person  knew  the  place ! 
Such  is  the  co-operation  between  shop  and  office  un¬ 
der  this  method  that  there  was  on  the  books  at  night 
a  complete  inventory  of  everything  needed  for  the 
work.  This  record  was  self-correcting,  that  is, 
there  was  no  possibility  under  it  of  running  short  or 
over-supplying.  It  took  out  of  a  shop  forever  that 
old,  irritating,  and  expensive  operation  known  as 
“  taking  an  inventory.” 


i8 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


The  promptness  and  sureness  with  which  a  part 
can  be  located  under  this  system  I  once  saw  illus¬ 
trated  in  an  interesting  way  at  the  Watertown 
Arsenal.  Lieutenant  Colonel  Wheeler,  the  com¬ 
manding  officer,  told  me  to  select  a  piece  in  any  one 
of  the  gun  carriages  under  construction,  and  we 
would  take  the  number  of  it  to  the  office  and  ask 
the  clerk  to  tell  us  where  that  particular  piece  was. 
In  five  minutes  after  we  had  given  him  the  number 
he  had  located  the  piece.  I  think  it  is  not  an  ex¬ 
aggeration  to  say  that  if  under  the  old  system  such 
a  question  had  been  asked  of  anybody  in  the  Water- 
town  Arsenal  it  would  have  taken  days  for  them  to 
have  answered  it —  if,  indeed,  they  ever  could  have 
done  so.  As  there  are  fifty  different  kinds  and 
grades  of  material  and  four  thousand  six  hundred 
different  pieces  used  in  a  disappearing  gun  carriage, 
the  advantage  of  being  able  to  put  your  hand 
promptly  on  material  and  pieces,  as  well  as  know¬ 
ing  every  night  whether  you  have  in  stock  the  quan¬ 
tities  of  each  necessary  to  carry  on  work,  does  not 
need  arguing.  The  gain  to  workingmen  and  to 
management  obviously  is  enormous. 

Scientific  management  places  as  much  stress  on 
cleanliness  as  on  order,  and  all  the  new  shops  have 
devices  for  fighting  the  particular  dirt  which  the 
operations  produce.  One  of  the  most  distressing 
features  of  cotton  mills  has  always  been  the  lint 
which  is  thrown  off  at  every  step  from  the  opening  of 
the  bales  to  the  weaving-room.  The  difficulty  of 
keeping  the  spinning  frames  from  becoming  clogged 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


19 


by  this  lint  has  generally  been  regarded  as  insur¬ 
mountable. 

When  the  first  cotton  factory  —  so  far  as  I  know 
—  was  studied  for  scientific  management  the  prob¬ 
lem  was  at  once  attacked.  The  result  was  a  com¬ 
pressed  air  device  for  cleaning.  All  day  long  a  man 
goes  up  and  down  the  spinning-room  with  a  hose, 
blowing  dust  from  the  frames  and  floors.  This 
practice,  together  with  what  the  spinner  himself  is 
able  to  do,  with  his  brush,  has  practically  removed 
all  the  irritating  interference  with  work  which  lint 
causes. 

Quite  as  important  as  the  increased  cleanliness  in 
this  factory  is  the  lowered  temperature.  By  an  air- 
conditioning  apparatus  fresh  air,  heated  in  winter, 
cooled  in  summer,  and  properly  humidified  in  both, 
is  furnished  to  all  departments.  What  this  means 
to  the  operatives  only  those  familiar  with  the  old 
conditions  can  realise. 

A  value  device  for  carrying  off  dirt  has  been 
installed  in  the  twine  plants  of  the  International 
Harvester  Company.  Twine  is  made  from  Yuca¬ 
tan  sisal.  The  opening  of  the  bundles  fills  the  room 
with  the  most  disagreeable  dust.  I  have  been  told 
that  when  Mr.  McCormick,  the  head  of  the  Har¬ 
vester  Trust,  first  caught  the  idea  of  the  model  work¬ 
shop,  he  told  the  heads  of  the  twine  department 
that  he  would  give  them  sixty  days  to  get  rid 
of  the  dust  in  the  opening-rooms.  It  was  not  long, 
considering  that  for  years  everybody  connected 
with  such  plants  had  said  that  it  was  one  of  the  un- 


20 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


avoidable  features  of  the  business.  But  in  sixty 
days  the  plant  was  equipped  with  a  machine  which 
carries  off  the  dust  so  perfectly  that  I  spent  half  an 
hour  in  an  opening-room  and  came  out  without  any 
perceptible  dust  on  my  dark  clothing.  This  is  done 
by  opening  the  bundles  over  a  perforated  floor  under 
which  fans  play.  The  dirt  is  carried  down  and  out, 
never  having  a  chance  to  rise  in  the  room. 

Disorder  and  dirt  are  probably  the  most  waste¬ 
ful  features  in  industry,  but  inconveniences  are  a 
close  second.  Scientific  management  has  fully 
demonstrated  this  by  studying  the  time  it  takes  a  man 
to  perform  a  task  under  different  conditions.  For 
instance,  the  old  way  of  putting  the  parts  of  a  ma¬ 
chine  together  was  to  place  everything  on  the  floor. 
The  workman  had  to  crouch  down,  or  actually  sit  on 
the  floor  while  he  was  assembling  the  parts  which 
came  in  the  lower  part  of  the  machine.  Now  an  ad¬ 
justable  table  is  provided,  so  that,  as  the  machine 
grows  higher,  the  table  can  be  lowered  and  the 
workman  finds  himself  always  in  the  position  which  is 
least  cramped.  The  result  is  that  he  does  more 
work  and  with  less  fatigue. 

An  extensive  study  of  clerical  work  resulted  in  ad¬ 
justable  chairs  by  which  a  clerk  could  take  seven  dif¬ 
ferent  positions.  This  was  done  solely  to  remove 
the  nervous  tension  and  fatigue  which  comes  from 
keeping  one  position  for  a  number  of  hours  —  to 
make  it  easier  for  people  to  do  their  work. 

In  the  cotton  factory  mentioned  above  the  spin¬ 
ning  frame  has  been  lifted  so  that  a  girl  can  dress  it 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


21 


without  stooping,  and  a  shelf  has  been  added  to  carry 
a  cleverly  arranged  spindle-rack.  .  The  racks  are 
brought  to  the  shelf  at  regular  intervals  by  a  boy. 
The  girl  without  stooping  changes  those  emptied 
for  those  filled,  and  the  rack  of  empty  spindles  goes 
back  with  the  boy.  The  girl’s  back  is  saved  and  so 
is  her  time. 

If  scientific  management  had  done  nothing  else 
for  industry  it  would  justify  itself  a  thousandfold 
as  a  system  by  the  strain  and  irritation  it  has  taken 
from  workers,  in  putting  things  to  rights,  in  insisting 
on  cleanliness,  and  in  inventing  devices  to  make 
work  easier  and  pleasanter. 

To  those  people  whose  ideas  of  factories  are 
based  mainly  on  the  distressing  conditions  which  in¬ 
vestigators  ferret  out  and  publish, —  there  are  plenty 
of  them  and  the  obligation  to  make  them  known  to 
the  public  is  imperative, —  to  these  people  the  use 
of  the  word  beauty  in  connection  with  industry  seems 
a  mockery.  But  this  is  a  judgment  of  ignorance. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  beauty  is  one  of  the  conscious 
ambitions  of  the  new  shop-makers.  I  do  not  know 
anything  more  encouraging  in  all  the  long  list  of  en¬ 
couraging  exhibits  in  the  country  than  the  efforts 
which  old-fashioned  plants  are  making  to  put  a 
note  of  cheer  and  attractiveness  into  their  ugly  and 
harsh  settings. 

The  real  beauty  of  a  great  many  of  our  factories 
is  destroyed  by  their  ugly  surroundings.  The  ap¬ 
proaches  and  the  yards  are  so  disorderly,  the  roads 
so  bad,  and  the  vacant  places  so  filled  with  dirt  and 


22 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


debris  that  any  value  the  building  may  have  is  lost. 
Clean  up  the  yards,  put  the  vacant  places  into  grass 
and  immediately  you  are  conscious  that  the  building 
is  good,  perhaps  beautiful. 

A  good  illustration  of  this  is  in  operation  at  this 
writing  in  the  famous  Homestead  Steel  Mills. 
There  was  a  time  not  long  distant  when  the  Home¬ 
stead  Mills  seemed  to  me  to  be  about  as  good  an  ex¬ 
ample  of  an  inferno  as  the  world  afforded.  The 
change  that  has  been  wrought  by  paving  the  hundred 
or  more  miles  of  roads  within  the  yards,  by  putting 
in  flower  beds  and  grass  plots  wherever  a  half  dozen 
square  yards  could  be  spared,  is  amazing. 

As  for  interest  in  these  operations,  I  defy  any¬ 
body  to  find  more  genuine  interest  in  any  branch  of  a 
factory’s  operations  than  many  superintendents  and 
operatives  take  in  efforts  to  grow  grass,  shrubbery, 
and  flowers  in  and  around  their  factories.  I  have 
seen  scores  of  gay  little  gardens,  window  boxes,  grot¬ 
tos,  which  operatives  had  made  in  moments  of  leisure 
and  to  which  they  gave  loving  care.  Sometimes  in 
the  big  mills  they  are  in  corners  so  remote  that  they 
go  undiscovered  by  superintendents  for  half  a 
season.  I  remember  one  such  in  the  big  plate  mill 
at  Vandergrift,  Pennsylvania. 

There  are  perhaps  eleven  per  cent,  of  twelve-hour 
men  still  left  at  Vandergrift.  They  work  in  shifts 
of  twenty  and  thirty  minutes,  intense  work  which  re¬ 
quires  an  equal  rest  period.  A  group  of  men  had 
used  these  rest  periods  in  beautifying  a  corner  for 
themselves.  It  was  a  spot  perhaps  eighteen  feet 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


23 


square  entirely  surrounded  by  high  walls.  They 
had  made  here  a  grass  plot  with  a  merry  little  foun¬ 
tain  in  the  centre.  Around  it  were  benches  painted 
a  bright  green.  So  unexpected  was  it,  so  evident  an 
expression  of  their  need  of  greenness  and  gaiety, 
that  one  could  scarcely  see  it  without  a  gulp. 

But  it  would  never  have  been  attempted  if  all 
about  the  mills  the  most  careful  attention  was  not 
given  to  grass  and  vines  and  flowers,  and  if  the  men 
were  not  encouraged  to  do  anything  they  wanted  to 
in  vacant  spots.  The  superintendent  at  Vandergrift, 
in  fact,  keeps  up  a  small  conservatory  which  supplies 
everybody  about  the  mills  who  wants  them  with 
seeds  and  plants. 

What  can  be  done  to  create  a  perfect  garden  of 
delight  is  shown  best,  perhaps,  in  this  country  at  the 
works  of  the  National  Cash  Register,  in  Dayton, 
Ohio.  Gardening  has  become  a  cult  among  the  ten 
thousand  employes  of  this  enterprise,  and  their 
continual  spur  and  teacher  is  the  factory  itself, 
where  the  most  scientific  and  loving  attention  is 
given  to  the  grass  and  flowers  and  vines  and  shrubs 
which  surround  and  embank  the  twenty  or  more 
buildings  which  make  up  the  plant. 

But  what  is  it  worth,  this  movement  toward  light, 
order,  and  cleanliness  and  beauty  in  workshops? 
What  is  it  worth  in  dollars  and  cents?  Take  the 
matter  of  proper  shop  lighting.  How  can  manu¬ 
facturers  be  convinced  that  they  can  afford  the  large 
initial  expense  it  requires  to  install  a  system  which  is 
used  on  an  average  not  over  two  hours  a  day? 


24 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Mr.  Schwarze  declares  in  his  handbook  that  the 
results  of  experiments  show  that  it  increases  output 
all  the  way  from  two  to  ten  per  cent. : 

“  In  a  certain  steel  plant,  where  an  efficient  light¬ 
ing  system  was  installed,”  he  writes,  “  the  output  at 
night  was  increased  a  little  over  ten  per  cent.  In 
order  to  determine  whether  this  was  due  wholly  to 
the  introduction  of  the  better  lighting  conditions,  the 
lamps  were  taken  out  and  for  a  time  the  work  was 
carried  on  at  night  with  the  old  lighting  system.  It 
was  found  that  the  amount  of  work  dropped  off  over 
ten  per  cent.  When,  however,  the  work  was  re¬ 
sumed  under  the  improved  conditions  the  men  were 
able  again  to  produce  ten  per  cent,  more  work.” 

There  is  the  same  relation  between  output  and 
ventilation  as  between  output  and  lighting.  The 
Hamilton  Watch  Company  recently  of  its  own  free 
will  wrote  to  a  ventilator  concern  that  since  the  in¬ 
stallation  of  their  ventilators  the  operatives  had 
been  doing  practically  the  same  amount  of  work  in 
nine  hours  that  they  formerly  did  in  ten.  The 
drowsy  hour  along  in  the  middle  afternoon  of  which 
foremen  and  managers  so  often  complain  seems  to 
have  been  entirely  eliminated  simply  by  giving  the 
workers  plenty  of  fresh  air.  Various  experiments 
have  been  made,  particularly  in  schools,  showing 
the  effect  of  better  ventilation  on  the  alertness  of 
pupils.  Some  years  ago  the  Board  of  Health  in  De¬ 
troit,  cut  off  without  the  knowledge  of  the  teachers, 
the  fans  of  the  ventilating  system  and  observed  the 
results.  In  twenty  minutes  the  students  began  to 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


25 


complain  that  the  room  was  cold  and  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  to  raise  the  temperature  from  68  degrees  to  75 
degrees  before  this  feeling  of  cold  was  relieved.  In 
forty  minutes  a  number  of  the  students  began  to  com¬ 
plain  of  headache  and  in  an  hour  the  teacher  was 
obliged  to  send  four  or  five  students  home.  The 
fans  were  then  started  and  in  fifteen  minutes  the 
complaints  ceased. 

The  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Health  for 
Indiana  who  has  made  various  experiments  with  the 
heating,  ventilating  and  lighting  of  school  rooms  de¬ 
clares  that  the  efficiency  of  the  pupils  has  been  in¬ 
creased  25  per  cent,  by  the  installation  of  proper  de¬ 
vices.  Of  course  what  is  true  of  the  schools  is  true 
of  factories. 

Every  efficiency  engineer  will  give  you  figures  to 
prove  that  money  is  saved  simply  in  putting  the 
stock-room  into  order  as  described  above.  Mr. 
George  Babcock  of  the  Franklin  Automobile  Com¬ 
pany,  where  the  Taylor  System  of  Scientific  Manage¬ 
ment  has  been  installed  in  root,  stock  and  branch, 
says  that  at  the  end  of  19 11  the  variation  of  their 
physical  inventory  with  their  records  was  2  >4  per 
cent,  of  the  value  of  the  charges  handled  during 
that  year.  Two  years  after  he  began  to  install  the 
system  this  variation  had  been  reduced  to  0.03  per 
cent.;  and  a  year  later  to  0.01  per  cent. 

That  such  considerations  as  the  colour  of  walls 
and  ceilings,  good  architectural  features,  trees,  grass 
and  flowers  have  a  direct  stimulating  effect  on  the 
efficiency  and  health  of  the  operatives  there  is  abun- 


26 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


dant  proof.  In  an  investigation  by  the  American 
Museum  of  Safety,  the  question  was  asked  of  the 
factory  managers  whether  they  had  found  that  their 
experiments  on  these  points  had  increased  the  ef¬ 
ficiency  of  the  workers.  Seventy-five  per  cent,  of 
those  who  replied  were  emphatic  in  their  declara¬ 
tions  that  the  effect  had  been  good.  Here  are  ex¬ 
tracts  from  some  of  the  letters: 

“  The  better  the  surroundings  the  better  the 
work.” 

“  We  know  by  experience  that  it  pays.” 

“  We  know  that  it  improves  health,  therefore  ef¬ 
ficiency.” 

“  Lawns,  trees,  etc.,  have  paid  interest  on  the  in¬ 
vestment  many  times  over.” 

“  Our  whole  neighbourhood  has  been  improved.” 

“  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  most  efficient 
men  prefer  to  work  where  surroundings  are  most 
attractive.” 

“  There  is  a  yearly  deficit  of  several  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  on  our  lunchroom,  but  we  consider  the  money 
well  invested.” 

But  it  is  something  more  than  an  increase  in  effi¬ 
ciency  the  workers  in  these  new  shops  get.  They  are 
getting  education,  satisfaction,  a  sense  of  their  own 
value  in  the  undertaking.  I  have  seen  girls  trans¬ 
figured  from  slatterns  to  clean  and  tidy  decency; 
women  whose  bitter  revolt  at  work  performed  in 
ugly  and  filthy  disorder  had  been  changed  to  cheerful 
interest;  men  who  had  given  up  the  saloon  because 
they  were  allowed  to  attend  the  flower  beds.  Light, 


OUR  NEW  WORKSHOPS 


27 


sun,  order  and  beauty  are  as  powerful  preventives 
of  evil  as  darkness,  disorder,  and  ugliness  are  in¬ 
centives  to  evil. 

We  complain  bitterly  at  times  of  the  awful  home 
conditions  of  the  new-come  immigrants.  But  if 
they  never  see  anything  better,  what  can  we  expect? 
They  tell  a  story  of  a  Polish  miner  at  Ishpeming, 
Michigan,  who  was  obliged  to  spend  some  weeks  in 
the  company’s  hospital.  His  home  had  been  the 
despair  of  the  company’s  nurse,  so  dirty  and  crowded 
it  was.  But  when  the  man  returned  from  the  hos¬ 
pital  the  place  was  immediately  transformed. 
“  Clean  and  nice  all  the  time,  now,”  he  told  the 
nurse  when  she  exclaimed  at  the  change.  “  Clean  and 
nice  like  the  hospital,  feel  good.”  The  new  work¬ 
shops  teach  many  men  and  women  what  the  hospital 
taught  this  man. 

They  teach  the  worker  much,  but  it  is  the  illumi¬ 
nation  they  are  bringing  to  those  who  direct  them 
that  is  most  significant  and  hopeful.  It  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say  that  these  new  industrial  ideas  are 
producing  an  entirely  new  type  of  employer;  one 
who  is  almost  as  much  of  an  educator  as  he  is  a 
maker  of  things;  almost  as  much  a  friend  of  men 
as  he  is  a  “  boss.”  He  has  discovered  that  no  man 
or  woman  can  reach  and  keep  the  point  of  efficiency 
which  scientific  business  requires  unless  he  is  healthy, 
content,  and  growing.  How  to  keep  men  and 
women  well  and  happy  is  part  of  his  business. 

“  Welfare  work  is  no  philanthropy,”  says  Rich¬ 
ard  Feiss,  of  the  Clothcraft  Shop  of  Cleveland,  “  but 


28 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


a  very  essential  part  of  the  management.  With  us 
it  is  perhaps  our  most  important  part.  It  is  just 
as  much  a  function  as  routing  (order  of  operations) 
or  inspection.  In  fact,  it  is  even  more  important, 
as  it  applies  directly  to  the  kind  of  boy  and  girl 
that  we  need  and  that  we  are  trying  to  develop.” 


CHAPTER  II 


“  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK  ” 

One  of  the  first  impressions  of  an  observer  who, 
free  of  pre-conceived  notions,  studies  a  re-organised 
modern  workshop  is  that  the  operatives  are  getting 
an  altogether  unprecedented  degree  of  social  life. 
A  little  analysis  shows  that  this  is  the  outcome  of 
the  new  shop  activities  and  ambitions. 

Groups  of  men  and  women  are  naturally  sociable. 
Join  the  crowd  that  watches  a  parade  and  observe 
the  good  terms  which  quickly  spread  sometimes  for 
miles  up  and  down  an  avenue.  The  helter-skelter 
throng  has  established  relations.  They  jeer  and 
chatter  and  accommodate  one  another.  They  ex¬ 
change  opinions  and  experiences.  The  rudiments 
of  a  social  and  political  organisation  may  easily  de¬ 
velop  in  the  course  of  an  afternoon  in  the  acci¬ 
dental  group  crowding  the  side  of  a  city  block. 

Observe  how  quickly  they  catch  the  spirit  of  the 
spectacle.  They  are  gaiety  itself  over  a  Mardi 
Gras  pageant;  but  let  the  demonstration  touch  the 
serious  and  they  answer  as  certainly.  It  was  a  New 
York  crowd  which  gave  to  the  first  Woman’s  Peace 
Parade  the  response  which  carried  it.  It  was  a 

venture  of  the  most  doubtful  outcome,  sure  to  excite 

29 


30 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  indignation  of  some,  the  ridicule  of  others.  Its 
only  strength  was  its  touching  impotency.  Yet 
throngs  of  men  and  women  watched  it  in  silent, 
sometimes  tearful,  respect.  They  knew  they  looked 
on  a  prayer,  a  hope  of  that  which-is-to-come.  t  he 
amazing  sympathy  and  understanding  they  gave 
those  marching  idealists  promises  as  much  for  the 
cause  of  peace  as  anything  this  country  has  seen  since 
the  war  began. 

The  chief  promise  of  groups  lies  in  this  natural 
sociability  and  understanding.  The  finest,  freest 
collective  work  men  do  develops  from  it.  The  fail¬ 
ure  to  recognise  and  encourage  it  in  undertakings  is 
unintelligent  as  well  as  unkind;  it  reacts  disastrously, 
dulling  initiative  and  hindering  co-operation. 

In  spite  of  the  obviousness  of  the  value  of  this 
social  spirit,  industry  has  been  slow,  even  stupid,  in 
utilising  it.  There  are  thousands  of  offices,  shops 
and  factories  in  this  country  where  there  is  no  more 
cohesion  between  the  workers  than  between  the  nails 
in  a  keg.  The  force  is  held  together  by  staves  and 
hoops.  Take  them  off  and  they  scatter.  The  con¬ 
ditions  under  which  they  labour  do  not  admit  of 
acquaintanceship.  The  managers  discourage  it. 
They  do  not  want  visiting,  planning,  talking  in  their 
plants,  they  tell  you.  True,  little  cliques  may  form, 
two  girls  or  men  become  friends,  but  for  the  most 
part  the  men  and  women  work  side  by  side,  often 
for  years,  without  any  form  of  communication. 

The  modern  employer  is  wiser.  He  recognises 
that  the  efficiency  he  must  have  to  succeed  —  if  he  has 


“  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK  ” 


3i 


no  privilege  to  carry  him  roughshod  over  competi¬ 
tion  —  depends  upon  the  health,  interest  and  co¬ 
operation  of  his  working  force.  He  learns  that  all 
of  these  forces  thrive  naturally  in  a  group  of  people 
who  find  satisfaction  in  working  side  by  side.  They 
do  this  when  they  have  common  social  interests. 
To  foster  these  interests  then  becomes  a  business 
policy. 

It  is  one  which  has  made  enormous  strides  in  the 
last  ten  years  particularly,  though  it  would  be  neither 
fair  nor  illuminating  to  treat  it  as  a  discovery  of 
this  period.  If  we  look  for  the  root  of  the  experi¬ 
ments  to  promote  sociability  among  working  people 
we  shall  probably  find  them  in  the  one  secular  social 
institution  that  early  piety  and  industry  tolerated, 
that  is,  the  annual  picnic.  The  severest  of  Protes¬ 
tant  sects  have  long  admitted  the  human  need  of  fun 
to  the  extent  of  one  picnic  a  year.  Rarely  was  there 
a  factory  in  the  old  days  that  did  not  limber  up  suf¬ 
ficiently  to  arrange  an  annual  outing  for  the  whole 
establishment,  including  wives,  babies  and  friends. 

Reluctant  as  the  factory  manager  may  often  have 
been  to  give  the  time  and  the  money  for  the  annual 
outing,  it  was  a  well-established  opinion  fifty  and 
more  years  ago  that  they  could  not  afford  to  do  with¬ 
out  it.  In  some  mysterious  way,  at  which  many 
sneered  but  which  none  could  deny,  those  outings 
oiled  the  human  machine.  Work  went  with  less 
friction  and  more  interest  in  the  weeks  of  prepara¬ 
tion  and  of  “  talking  it  over.”  It  was,  no  doubt,  a 
good  thing. 


32 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


There  is  no  knowing  just  when  a  few  of  the  more 
reflective  employers  began  to  see  that  the  interest 
and  spirit  awakened  by  the  annual  outing  was  some¬ 
thing  to  be  preserved  and  given  opportunities  to 
grow.  Nor  is  there  any  way  of  knowing  who  first 
appreciated  the  relation  between  a  field  for  out-of- 
door  sports  and  the  health  and  sociability  of  the  fac¬ 
tory;  he  belongs,  of  course,  to  the  period  of  the  ten- 
hour  day;  when  men  worked  twelve  and  fourteen 
there  was  neither  the  light  nor  the  life  to  throw  a 
ball.  He  came  with  the  shorter  day  and  he  heads 
a  great  and  growing  succession. 

The  factory  athletic  field  is  coming  to  be  almost 
as  much  a  matter  of  course  as  the  sanitary  drinking 
fountains,  and  where  you  find  the  latter  you  are  al¬ 
most  sure  to  find  the  former,  or  its  substitute.  Even 
in  many  cities  where  the  factory  is  crowded  for  land, 
a  corner  often  is  squeezed  out  for  out-of-door 
sports.  I  doubt  if  there  is  an  athletic  field  in  the 
United  States  which  has  as  much  use  to  the  square 
inch  as  the  girls  at  the  Clothcraft  shop  in  Cleveland 
give  to  a  bit  of  enclosed  land  at  the  side  of  the 
factory.  It  is  not  larger  than  a  city  lot,  but  it  teems 
with  excitement  during  noon  hours  and  after  the 
shop  closes  at  four-thirty. 

Mr.  Feiss  will  tell  you,  in  explanation  of  the  time 
he  and  his  associates  give  to  encouraging  the  use  of 
this  bit  of  land,  “  I  can’t  afford  to  have  people  work¬ 
ing  in  my  shop  who  don’t  have  fresh  air  and  fun.” 
It  is  the  reason  he  gives  for  his  early  closing  hours. 
“  I  can’t  afford  to  have  people  working  after  four- 


“  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK  ” 


33 


thirty  in  the  afternoon.  They  aren’t  sufficiently  fit 
next  day.” 

The  Steel  Corporation  is  so  convinced  of  the 
value  of  the  ball  field  that  it  encourages  its  sub¬ 
sidiaries  everywhere  to  provide  them.  Probably 
thousands  of  dollars  are  spent  annually  by  the  com¬ 
panies  for  their  upkeep,  though  the  general  practice 
is  for  the  men  to  meet  this  by  an  equal,  or  at  least  a 
substantial,  contribution  of  their  own.  In  all  the 
new  plants  such  as  that  at  Gary  the  ball  field  is  con¬ 
sidered  as  necessary  as  a  first-aid  room. 

That  the  corporation  is  right  in  the  special  en¬ 
couragement  it  gives  baseball  is  indisputable  —  what 
the  game  is  doing  for  health  and  sociability  in 
American  industries  cannot  be  estimated.  It  is  a 
poor  management  indeed,  these  days,  and  a  thor¬ 
oughly  soured  force  which  does  not  support  depart¬ 
mental  nines.  As  proud  a  man  as  I  ever  saw  was 
the  usually  unapproachable  vice-president  of  a  big 
factory  who,  playing  on  the  office  team  at  the  an¬ 
nual  picnic,  had  made  a  “  home  run.”  It  was  days 
before  he  ceased  talking  about  it,  and  when  the  of¬ 
fice  would  no  longer  listen  he  went  to  the  floor  and 
lived  it  over  with  Jimmie  B.,  a  weaver  who,  in  spite 
of  this  heroic  deed,  had  won  the  game  for  the  oper¬ 
atives. 

All  over  the  land  you  can  duplicate  the  amusing 
experience  of  the  hero  of  Philip  Curtiss’s  story 
“  The  Ladder.”  He  had  applied  in  a  big  concern 
for  work.  There  was  no  opening  until  he  chanced 
on  an  employe  who  had  known  him  in  his  baseball 


34 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


days.  The  acquaintance  promptly  passed  his  in¬ 
formation  on  to  the  employment  agent.  That 
worthy  as  promptly  reconsidered  his  decision. 

“What  did  you  tell  him  about  me?”  the  hero 
asked. 

“  That  you  were  the  best  second-baseman  in  the 
State.” 

There  is  many  a  factory  where  operators  and  op¬ 
eratives  would  consider  this  a  sound  reason  for  em¬ 
ploying  a  man,  and  why  not  if  it  is  considered  a 
sound  reason  for  admitting  a  boy  to  college? 

The  rivalry  between  the  teams  of  different  plants 
and  factories  is  coming  to  be  like  that  between  towns 
and  schools.  One  of  the  most  exciting  series  of 
games  —  outside  of  those  of  the  leagues,  and  the 
big  colleges  —  of  which  I  know,  is  that  between  the 
forty  or  more  teams  of  miners  in  the  Frick  Coke 
Company  in  the  Connellsville  District  of  Pennsyl¬ 
vania.  It  is  doubtful  if  there  are  ever  more  than 
two  or  three  men  on  a  team  who  speak  the  same 
tongue,  but  that  seems  not  to  interfere  either  with 
their  efficiency  or  their  enthusiasm. 

In  the  fall  of  1913  I  visited  the  coke  towns  a  few 
days  after  the  finals  had  been  played.  There  had 
been  a  general  holiday.  The  five  thousand  spec¬ 
tators  were  made  up  of  the  miners,  their  wives  and 
children  and  the  officers  of  the  company  from  the 
president  down.  It  had  been  a  great  day,  and 
everywhere  I  went  I  heard  it  discussed.  The  hero 
of  the  district  was  an  Italian  miner  who  had  won 
the  final  victory  for  his  nine.  At  that  particular 


“A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK” 


35 


moment  you  could  not  have  pried  a  man  out  of  that 
company!  Moreover,  the  company  could  have 
counted  on  every  man’s  co-operation  in  any  reason¬ 
able  proposition. 

While  baseball  is  easily  the  favourite  factory 
game,  as  befits  its  national  position,  there  are  many 
concerns  in  which  the  variety  of  sports  equal  that  of 
any  college  or  athletic  club.  I  know  of  one  Roch¬ 
ester  factory  in  which  they  play  baseball,  lawn  ten¬ 
nis,  bowling  on  the  green,  volley  ball,  croquet,  soccer 
ball  and  quoits.  Last  winter  the  bowling  team  won 
the  championship  of  the  Industrial  League  of  the 
city  of  Rochester  against  teams  from  all  the  princi¬ 
pal  establishments  in  the  town. 

So  thoroughly  has  the  industrial  athletic  field 
demonstrated  its  usefulness  that  no  intelligent  em¬ 
ployer  of  labour  familiar  with  advanced  practices 
thinks  to-day  of  building  a  new  shop  or  factory  in 
town  or  country  without  some  provision  for  an  out- 
of-door  field  or  an  indoor  equivalent.  Take  a  mod¬ 
ern  factory  like  the  new  one  of  Brown  and  Bigelow 
near  Saint  Paul,  Minnesota.  In  building,  the  con¬ 
cern  provided  for  some  twenty  acres  of  open  space 
around  the  light,  airy,  comfortable  factory  it  put  up. 
In  this  space  all  the  sports  which  interest  the  force 
are  carried  on.  The  director  of  the  service  depart¬ 
ment  of  the  plant  tells  me  that  all  of  these  under¬ 
takings  are  managed  by  the  employes  themselves 
through  a  club  to  which  everybody  belongs  by  virtue 
of  his  position  as  a  worker. 

Once  a  year  nominations  are  made  for  officers  of 


36 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  club,  and  all  employes  have  a  chance  to  ballot 
for  their  favourites.  Besides  the  officers,  a  govern¬ 
ing  board  is  elected  in  an  advising  capacity.  Sev¬ 
eral  of  the  present  members  of  the  governing  board 
are  workers  at  bench  or  machine. 

The  officers  run  all  the  club  affairs,  including  a 
benevolent  association  and  a  dining-room;  they  pre¬ 
pare  for  the  annual  picnic;  out  of  their  treasury  they 
furnish  balls  and  bats  for  the  baseball  teams;  they 
pay  for  the  use  of  the  bowling  alleys  on  which  once 
a  week  during  the  winter  twelve  teams  from  as  many 
departments  compete  for  a  loving  cup  presented  by 
the  firm  and  for  individual  prizes  offered  by  the 
clubs;  they  pay  for  the  tennis  courts  and  skating 
rinks.  Brown  and  Bigelow’s  co-operation  in  this 
consists  of  furnishing  space,  light,  heat  and  steam. 
Every  time  an  employe  is  tardy,  a  fine  of  ten  cents  is 
imposed,  and  this  money  is  turned  into  the  club 
funds. 

These  organisations  give  wonderful  training  in 
collective  action.  Indeed,  they  are  for  thousands  of 
people  the  only  chance  they  have  ever  had  for  free, 
conscious  co-operation.  It  is  actually  exciting  to 
watch  men  and  women  develop  through  these  organ¬ 
isations,  not  only  in  health  and  good  spirits  but  in 
what  they  have  never  suspected  they  possessed  — 
the  power  of  leadership.  A  man  or  woman  who 
has  always  been  shy,  sulky,  uncommunicative,  an  in¬ 
different  and  unambitious  worker,  will  blossom  into 
a  leader  in  sports  or  in  “  getting  up  things.”  There 


“  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK  ” 


37 


is  an  immediate  change  in  his  attitude  toward  his 
work. 

An  alert  manager  recognises  at  once  that  he  has 
here  the  making  of  a  foreman.  His  task  is  now  to 
watch,  give  encouragement  and  instruction,  and  at 
the  right  moment  advance  his  find.  Nothing  is 
more  valuable  to  him,  more  essential,  than  such  dis¬ 
coveries,  if  he  is  trying  to  manage  his  business  scien¬ 
tifically.  The  large  force  of  instructors  and  func¬ 
tion  bosses  required  in  a  shop  under  scientific  man¬ 
agement  can  come  only  out  of  the  factory  itself,  to 
get  the  best  results.  The  strength  of  the  system  lies 
largely  in  developing  workers  to  do  higher-grade 
work.  But  where  there  is  no  more  sociability  than 
in  most  shops  it  is  a  slow  and  sometimes  most  dis¬ 
couraging  task  to  find  this  material.  Factory  clubs 
and  amusements  constantly  bring  it  out.  It  is  a 
precious  thing  for  the  business,  but  it  is  life  and  fu¬ 
ture  for  the  worker. 

As  a  rule  the  provisions  for  out-of-door  sports  are 
modest  enough,  though  there  are  a  few  plants  in  the 
country  which  almost  take  one’s  breath  away  by 
their  magnificence.  The  National  Cash  Register 
has  gone  furthest,  probably.  In  addition  to  base¬ 
ball  diamonds,  tennis  courts,  children’s  playgrounds 
and  clubhouses  near  the  factory,  Mr.  Patterson 
keeps  up  for  his  employes  on  the  outskirts  of  Day- 
ton  and  within  easy  reach  by  a  five-cent  ride  on  street 
cars  one  of  the  loveliest  small  parks  in  the  country. 
It  has  been  handled  with  rare  intelligence  and,  an  un- 


38 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


usual  thing  in  our  parks,  originality.  Surprises 
await  you  at  every  turn  in  “  Hills  and  Dales,”  as  it 
is  called  —  devotion  to  birds,  devotion  to  flowers,  an 
instinct  for  views  and  “  glimpses.”  There  is  a 
handsome  clubhouse  run  by  the  employes,  a  girls’ 
club  and,  most  attractive  of  all,  several  camps  fur¬ 
nished  with  everything  necessary  for  instant  use  for 
whomsoever  may  apply ! 

The  United  Shoe  Machinery  Company  is  an¬ 
other  concern  which  has  arranged  lavish  out-of- 
door  life  for  its  five  thousand  or  more  employes. 
Close  to  its  Beverly,  Massachusetts,  plant  it  has 
three  hundred  acres  of  land,  the  Charles  River  run¬ 
ning  through  them,  wThere  every  conceivable  land 
and  water  sport  is  encouraged. 

Elaborate  equipments  like  these  lead  those  who 
are  unfamiliar  with  the  hundreds  of  small  ventures 
over  the  country  to  believe  that  the  work  is  merely 
a  “  frill  ”  of  Big  Business,  one  of  its  advertising 
schemes  for  reconciling  a  hostile  public.  No  doubt 
some  skilful  advertising  has  been  done  through  these 
ambitious  undertakings,  but  this  is  certain  —  unless 
they  are  used  they  make  a  concern  ridiculous.  De¬ 
serted,  they  prove  that  something  is  wrong  with  the 
motive  in  their  establishment  or  the  method  of  their 
management.  When  the  fields  and  diamonds  and 
courts  and  roads  are  thronged  at  noon  and  night,  on 
holidays  and  Sundays,  we  may  set  it  down  as  a  real 
thing,  whether  elaborate  or  simple. 

As  far  as  results  are  concerned  it  doesn’t  much 
matter  whether  it  is  elaborate  or  simple.  The  spirit 


“A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK” 


39 


is  the  life  of  it,  not  the  machine.  Neither  the  Na¬ 
tional  Cash  Register  nor  the  United  Shoe  Machinery 
Company  could  persuade  or  force  their  employes  to 
use  their  courts  and  grounds  and  clubhouses  as  freely 
as  they  do  if  they  were  merely  an  advertising  scheme. 
They  are  used  because  the  primary  reason  for  their 
existence  is  the  health,  efficiency,  and  social  pleas¬ 
ure  of  the  workers.  They  “  pay  ”  the  firm,  or  they 
would  not  be  supported  by  two  as  hard-headed  con¬ 
cerns  as  these;  but  they  “  pay  ”  the  operatives  even 
more. 

Big  Business  has  no  monopoly  of  this  class  of 
work.  It  can  absorb  a  great  deal  of  money,  but  it 
needs  almost  none.  Indeed,  it  depends  for  success 
on  that  which  money  cannot  buy  —  sympathy,  under¬ 
standing,  sound  humanity  and  sound  sense.  Nor 
did  Big  Business  discover  the  value  of  the  social  in¬ 
terests  of  its  employes  to  its  own  stability  and  its 
efficiency, —  like  almost  everything  else  it  possesses 
it  took  over  what  it  found,  and  developed  it  on  a 
large  scale.  Small  business  originated  the  work, 
and  it  is  small  business  which  gets  the  finest  results, 
as  a  rule,  both  for  itself  and  for  its  people. 

What  are  the  results?  How  do  you  know  them? 
When  the  army  of  employes  rush  back  to  their  ma¬ 
chines  after  a  noon  hour  of  comfort  and  play,  fresh, 
zestful,  singing,  when  they  come  back  Monday 
morning  or  after  a  holiday  brown,  interested,  full  of 
talk  of  matches  lost  or  won,  of  excursions,  picnics, 
adventures,  the  wise  man  knows  he  is  reaping  the 
reward  of  his  investment.  When  men  and  women 


40 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


tell  you  with  enthusiasm:  “  Gee,  but  this  is  a  fine 
place  to  wrork!  ”  you  know  they  are  reaping  the  bene¬ 
fits  of  his  investment.  But  what  they  get  is  by  no 
means  bounded  by  the  factory  walls  or  ended  with 
their  period  of  service.  They  are  being  educated 
in  two  things  most  essential  to  themselves  and  to  the 
community,  two  things  in  which  most  of  us  are  weak. 
They  are  learning  how  to  be  sociable  and  how  to 
play  and  to  enjoy  people.  These  are  permanent 
possessions. 

The  great  body  of  people  in  this  country  do  not 
know  the  value  nor  the  delight  of  play.  They  work 
hard  and  cheerfully  as  a  rule  through  a  long  day,  and 
depend  on  sleep  and  food  and  what  they  call  “  tak¬ 
ing  comfort  ” —  that  is,  sitting  around  in  a  more 
or  less  somnolent  state  —  to  fit  them  for  the  next 
day.  They  have  never  learned  to  take  regular  ex¬ 
ercise,  to  seek  a  stimulating  change  of  ideas,  to  go 
out  after  the  new.  They  are  not  curious,  eager  or 
adventurous  in  their  off  hours,  though  they  may  be 
all  that  when  at  work.  Life  is  but  a  collection  of 
habits.  If  the  habit  of  seeking  recreation  and  social 
life  has  never  been  acquired,  the  effort  to  do  so  is 
a  burden  to  the  flesh  and  a  worry  to  the  spirit.  In¬ 
dustry  is  fixing  the  habit  in  thousands  of  men  and 
women.  One  of  the  convincing  proofs  of  this  is  the 
extent  to  which  in  many  parts  of  the  country  opera¬ 
tives,  either  in  groups  or  as  individuals,  are  pro¬ 
viding  simple  quarters  within  easy  reach  of  their 
work  wrhich  they  can  use  at  will.  All  those  wrho 
travel  much  become  familiar  with  them:  gay  little 


“  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK  ” 


4i 


shacks  grouped  in  pleasant  groves,  log  cabins 
perched  on  mountainsides,  tiny  houseboats  anchored 
along  river  banks,  bungalows  by  the  sea.  They  are 
multiplying  amazingly,  particularly  through  the 
Middle  West.  It  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  exhibits 
of  our  present  world,  a  proof  that  pleasure  and 
health,  as  well  as  the  means  to  get  them,  are  being 
more  and  more  widely  distributed  in  the  land. 

One  thing  leads  to  another  in  groups.  If  the 
start  is  made  there  is  no  end  to  the  ramifications. 
The  men  of  a  factory  who  have  come  together  over 
baseball  in  the  summer  want  a  bowling  alley,  a  card- 
room,  a  reading-room  for  winter,  and  they  often  ask 
the  management  for  it.  This  is  the  sound  and  sure 
beginning  for  the  factory  clubhouse,  an  institution 
which  is  doing  as  much  for  factory  social  life  as  the 
athletic  field.  There  are  many  such  clubhouses, 
which  buzz  from  morning  until  night  with  activities 
of  every  kind;  but  let  no  one  imagine  that  it  was 
merely  the  building  and  machinery  which  caused 
spontaneous  interest.  Most  of  these  have  grown 
from  very  small  beginnings. 

Ten  years  ago  a  dinner  was  given  by  the  new 
president  of  the  Commonwealth  Steel  Company  of 
Granite  City,  Illinois,  Mr.  Clarence  Howard,  in  the 
little  frame  building  then  used  as  a  factory  eating- 
room.  At  this  gathering  a  club  called  the  Com¬ 
monwealth  Fellowship  was  organised.  It  now  has 
a  thousand  members.  Its  quarters  have  expanded 
into  a  handsome  and  commodious  brick  building  and 
its  activities  take  in  every  conceivable  interest  of  the 


42 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


plant  and  the  working  force.  If  one  wants  proofs 
that  the  cultivation  of  good  fellowship  on  the  high¬ 
est  Christian  lines  is  practical  in  a  factory,  he  ought 
to  study  the  co-operation  the  Commonwealth  Steel 
Company  gets  in  its  undertakings. 

Here  is  an  example  of  a  character  so  unusual  that 
it  called  forth  the  hearty  commendations  of  the  /w- 
ter national  Moulders ’  Journal ,  though  the  plant  is 
an  open  shop.  It  was  desired  to  make  certain 
changes  in  the  foundry  in  the  interests  of  efficiency 
and  economy,  and  the  company  offered  to  share 
half  of  the  time  saved  with  the  moulders.  In 
the  early  winter  the  men  were  informed  that  the 
change  had  saved  several  hundred  dollars  and  that 
their  half  was  ready  for  them.  How  should  it  be 
distributed?  Times  had  been  dull  in  the  plant  and 
a  number  of  men  had  been  idle.  The  moulders 
knew  that  the  company  had  set  aside  a  fund  to  aid 
these  men.  Accordingly  they  asked  that  the  money 
coming  to  them  be  applied  to  this  fund.  The  com¬ 
pany  answered  by  turning  over  the  entire  sum. 

The  clubhouse  or  club-room  has  generally  as  its 
first  and  possibly  most  important  service  the  furnish¬ 
ing  of  a  place  in  which  to  lunch.  The  lunch-room 
serves  an  industry  in  much  the  same  way  that  an 
athletic  field  does.  The  day  will  come,  I  believe, 
when  the  failure  to  furnish  proper  lunching  places 
for  a  working  force  will  be  looked  on  as  one  of  the 
most  uneconomical  practices  of  the  innumerable 
number  with  which  industry  burdens  itself.  Peo¬ 
ple  who  eat  cold  meals  from  the  corner  of  their  desks 


"  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK  ” 


43 


or  machines  do  it  at  the  expense  of  their  afternoon 
efficiency.  I  never  see  this  untidy,  cheerless  prac¬ 
tice  in  operation  that  I  do  not  feel  like  suggesting  to 
the  officers  and  directors  of  the  concern  tolerating  it 
that  they  lunch  for  a  week  in  the  same  place  and 
from  the  same  cold  food,  and  then  test  their  after¬ 
noon  efficiency. 

Moreover,  it  is  a  waste  of  an  excellent  social  op¬ 
portunity.  There  is  no  way  in  which  men  and 
women  more  quickly  come  together  than  over  com¬ 
mon  meals.  “  You  can’t  fuss  with  the  fellow  you 
eat  with,”  said  a  man  at  the  Commonwealth.  If 
they  run  their  own  lunching  place,  electing  officers 
and  deciding  on  expenditures,  as  many  do,  so  much 
the  better.  If  the  officers  and  superintendents  share 
the  lunch-room  even  occasionally,  the  effect  is  ex¬ 
cellent.  At  the  Commonwealth  Steel  plant  the 
lunch-room  is  even  doing  something  to  unsettle  one 
of  the  most  fixed  of  American  —  not  European  — 
prejudices.  There  are  several  coloured  men  in  the 
factory.  The  locality,  the  Egypt  of  Illinois,  has 
always  held  the  extreme  Southern  view  of  the  social 
place  of  the  negro.  In  arranging  the  lunch-room 
separate  tables  were  provided  for  white  and  col¬ 
oured;  but  I  was  told  it  was  not  infrequent  for  a 
white  man  deliberately  to  take  a  coloured  man’s  table 
or  invite  him  to  his.  A  little  thing,  perhaps,  but  it 
shows  the  quality  of  the  fellowship  which  pervades 
the  place. 

It  is  usual  to  turn  the  lunch-room  into  an  amuse¬ 
ment  hall  after  the  meal  is  over.  I  once  lunched 


44 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


with  the  president  of  a  big  Rochester  manufactur¬ 
ing  concern  in  a  room  probably  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  in  length  by  fifty  feet  in  width  filled  with 
small  tables  and  served  in  cafeteria  fashion.  The 
sides  of  this  room  were  practically  of  glass.  From 
the  great  windows  one  looked  out  on  eight  acres  of 
ground  equally  divided  by  this  wing.  Great  trees, 
beautiful  shrubs  and  a  most  perfect  sward,  tennis 
courts,  bowling  greens,  flowers  and  vines  made  it 
as  lovely  a  place  as  one  could  ask.  These  opera¬ 
tives  lunch  in  a  place  as  beautiful  as  any  resident  of 
this  beautiful  city. 

There  were  probably  three  hundred  men  and 
women  using  the  room  the  day  that  I  lunched  there; 
the  excellent  and  abundant  food  was  given  them  at 
cost;  my  lunch  cost  fifteen  cents.  It  was  no  better 
or  cheaper  than  that  I  have  eaten  in  scores  of  lunch¬ 
rooms  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Atlantic,  the 
rooms  varying  in  size  from  big  halls  like  this,  some¬ 
times  handsomely  decorated,  to  little  rooms  in  a 
mansard  roof  of  a  city  building.  The  lunch  over, 
the  groups  naturally  turn  to  amusements.  In  this 
particular  place  some  fell  to  playing  cards  or  chess, 
others  to  talking,  a  few  to  reading,  many  to  dancing, 
or  listening  to  the  music.  On  a  pleasant  day  the 
whole  company  would  have  gone  outside  to  games 
or  to  walk  in  the  grounds. 

The  effect  of  all  these  varied  free  activities  on 
men  and  women  who  are  employed  on  machines,  as 
such  vast  throngs  are  in  these  days,  is  blessed.  It 


“  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK  ” 


45 


breaks  the  intolerable  monotony.  The  monotony  is 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  and  cruel  features  of 
modern  manufacturing.  It  is  probably  the  chief 
cause  of  the  unstable  pay  roll.  The  worker  is  so 
limited  in  his  interests  that  his  mind  turns  on  his 
own  condition  and  situation.  The  machine  becomes 
his  enemy.  He  cannot  endure  it.  He  breaks  away, 
to  repeat  the  experience  in  different  factories.  He 
becomes  a  floater.  It  is  either  that  or  settling  into 
dull  endurance.  But  give  the  operative  something 
to  think  of,  something  related  to  his  work,  and  the 
monotony  and  fatigue  are  relieved. 

The  wise  woman  who  directs  the  social  activities 
of  the  Pilgrim  Laundry  of  Brooklyn  said  to  me  once 
that  no  girl  could  do  two  thousand  collars  a  day  if 
she  didn’t  have  something  interesting  to  think  of, 
something  which  concerned  herself.  She  sees  to  it 
that  there  is  always  something  pleasant  planned  for 
the  girls  to  do.  It  is  the  thought  of  a  play  they  are 
to  give,  a  dance,  an  excursion  that  keeps  their  minds 
alive  and  happy  while  their  fingers  carry  on  the 
rapid  work  demanded  of  them. 

“  You  don’t  know  how  changed  life  has  been  for 

me  since  Miss  A -  came  here  and  showed  us 

how  to  organize  clubs  and  things,”  a  fine  sober  girl 
said  to  me  in  a  white  goods  factory  once.  She  had 
been  pointed  out  as  the  editor  of  the  factory  paper, 
a  lively  little  monthly  full  of  the  activities  of  the 
place,  and  had  stopped  her  machine  to  answer  my 
questions.  “  You  see,  now  I  can  think  of  the  paper 


46 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


and  what  I  shall  put  into  it  wThile  I  do  my  work. 
Before,  I  had  nothing  to  think  of  and  I  did  get  so 
tired  every  day.” 

“  Do  you  do  as  much  work?  ”  I  asked. 

“  More,”  she  said,  and  pulled  out  the  little  ac¬ 
count  book  to  prove  it.  “  It  goes  easier;  all  the 
girls  say  so,  too.” 

The  activities  which  grow  up  in  these  industrial 
groups  are  by  no  means  limited  to  amusements  and 
sports.  They  are  frequently  devoted  to  self-im¬ 
provement.  Sewing,  domestic  science,  stenography, 
arithmetic,  literature,  technical  branches  related  to 
the  industry,  spring  up  naturally  as  the  force  be¬ 
comes  acquainted.  The  benefit  of  this  to  the  worker 
is  no  more  bounded  by  his  term  in  the  factory  than 
is  the  benefit  that  comes  to  him  from  out-of-door 
sports.  Here  again  he  has  learned  something  about 
himself.  He  has  found  ways  of  enriching  and  en¬ 
livening  his  life,  and  the  knowledge  cannot  be  left 
behind  if  he  leaves  the  factory.  He  is  a  better, 
happier,  and  more  efficient  citizen  for  his  term  of 
service  there. 

The  factory  profits  from  this  improvement  while 
he  stays  by  it.  He  profits  throughout  his  life. 

There  are  of  course  multitudes  of  people  to  argue 
that  all  this  is  none  of  the  employers’  business,  that 
people  find  what  they  want,  that  there  are  enough 
opportunities  everywhere  for  pleasure  and  improve¬ 
ment  if  men  and  women  have  the  energy  to  look  for 
them. 

Why  establish  playgrounds,  ball  grounds,  parks, 


“  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK 55 


47 


they  ask,  when  every  city  does  something  of  the  kind 
and  they  are  never  fully  used? 

Generous  and  thoughtful  as  a  city  may  be  in  scat¬ 
tering  open  spaces  it  cannot  meet  this  particular 
need.  The  worker  requires  a  space  at  hand  where 
he  can  put  in  his  short  noon  and  evening  leisure  at 
play  in  factory  uniform.  No  city  can  provide  an 
open  space  for  each  factory.  Grand  Rapids,  Mich¬ 
igan,  comes  as  near  to  doing  this  as  any  town  I  have 
seen.  It  aims  to  give  a  playground  within  a  half- 
mile  of  every  child,  and  it  certainly  has  an  open 
space  within  the  same  distance  of  almost  every  fac¬ 
tory;  but  this  is  far  from  meeting  the  demand  I  am 
talking  of.  Rochester,  New  York,  has  a  large  and 
well-distributed  system  of  parks,  but  there  are  sev¬ 
eral  factories  within  the  city  limits  which  have  pro¬ 
vided  athletic  grounds.  The  Eastman  Company 
has  in  its  Kodak  Park  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town 
a  beautiful  setting  of  turf  and  shrubs  and  vines  for 
its  great  factories,  and  scattered  throughout  the 
space  are  tennis  courts  and  ball  fields. 

The  top  floor  of  the  factory  lunch-room  has  been 
turned  into  an  assembly  hall  which  will  accommodate 
many  hundred  people.  I  once  attended  a  party 
there,  given  by  a  group  of  factory  girls.  There 
were  literally  hundreds  of  couples  on  the  floor, 
among  them  many  of  the  officers  and  directors  of 
the  plant.  Their  wives  were  with  them.  Mr. 
Eastman  was  present  with  a  group  of  friends.  This 
is  the  custom  of  the  place.  It  was  as  merry  and 
democratic  a  party  as  any  one  could  wish. 


48 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Many  contend  that  factory  amusements  are  a 
wasteful  overlapping  of  the  social  activities  of 
churches,  settlements,  municipalities.  My  own  ob¬ 
servation  is  that  there  is  always  more  demand  for 
healthful  amusements  than  supply.  There  is  a  fac¬ 
tory  district  in  New  York  City  of  not  over  twenty 
blocks  where  there  are  ten  thousand  girls  and 
women  at  work.  Outside  of  the  cheap  dance  halls, 
movies,  and  theatres  there  is  not  in  this  area  pro¬ 
vision  for  evening  sports  for  over  one  thousand,  if 
that. 

Neither  church,  family,  nor  state  is  deprived  of 
any  opportunity  or  support  by  the  social  activities  1 
of  the  factory.  They  are  all  improved  and  stim¬ 
ulated  by  them.  As  for  the  established  social 
centres,  they  will  lose  only  when  they  are  less  in¬ 
viting,  less  stimulating.  If  they  are  undemocratic 
—  that  is,  absorbed  by  sets,  as  often  happens  — 
they  will  lose.  If  their  activities  smack  of  con¬ 
descension,  they  will  lose.  If  they  are  philanthro¬ 
pies,  not  encouraging  pleasure  for  pleasure’s  sake 
but  that  they  may  teach  something  indirectly,  they 
will  lose.  Otherwise,  they  will  gain. 

Leadership,  kind,  wise,  inspired  by  the  convic¬ 
tion  that  factory  and  shop  under  modern  conditions 
furnish  one  of  the  finest  opportunities  in  the  world 
to  develop  people  both  as  individuals  and  groups, 
is  essential  for  the  work.  Such  leadership  has 
brought  to  more  than  one  factory  such  a  spirit  of 
happiness  that  men  and  women  again  are  singing  at 
their  work.  There  is  no  reason  they  should  not. 


“  A  FINE  PLACE  TO  WORK  ” 


49 


The  machine  is  an  almost  sentient  thing.  Its  roar 
and  clash  and  whir  to  him  who  has  learned  to  know 
it  has  its  own  strange  rhythm  and  song.  The 
worker  who  has  come  to  it  in  health  and  courage 
has  no  quarrel  with  his  machine.  Indeed,  he  often 
sings  to  it  and  with  it. 

One  of  the  happiest  things  that  I  have  seen  in 
factories  on  which  an  intelligent  scientific  manage¬ 
ment  had  laid  its  always  kind  (if  always  firm)  hand 
has  been  the  singing  of  girls  over  their  machines. 
But  they  cannot  do  it  on  the  long  day,  on  poor  pay, 
or  on  hearts  to  which  joy  is  a  stranger.  They  will 
do  it  only  when  they  have  come  to  feel  and  to  say, 
“  My,  but  this  is  a  fine  place  to  work!  ” 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 

The  new  workshop  is  a  safe  shop.  The  killing 
of  men  and  women  has  always  been  accepted  by  the 
world  as  very  much  a  matter  of  course.  “  The  sea 
is  hungry,  we  must  bear  many  sons,”  the  wives  of  the 
Breton  fishermen  say;  and  so  say  the  women  of  the 
cotton  mills  and  iron  furnaces,  the  match  factories 
and  railroads. 

Sacredness  of  human  life!  The  world  has  never 
believed  it!  It  has  been  with  life  that  we  settled 
our  quarrels,  won  wives,  gold  and  land,  defended 
ideas,  imposed  religions.  We  have  held  that  a 
death  toll  was  a  necessary  part  of  every  human 
achievement,  whether  sport,  war,  or  industry.  A 
moment’s  rage  over  the  horror  of  it,  and  we  have 
sunk  into  indifference. 

There  is  a  new  industrial  philosophy  abroad 
which  breaks  with  this  idea :  Nothing  is  so  valu¬ 
able  economically  as  the  man.  To  injure  or  to  kill 
him  is  to  destroy  the  one  essential  element  in  the 
scheme  of  world-wide  civilisation  and  prosperity. 
He  who  can  produce  at  the  top  of  his  bent  can  con¬ 
sume  equally.  The  stronger,  the  longer  lived,  the 
happier,  the  more  ambitious  he  is,  the  better  for 
mankind.  Injury  and  death  are  the  fruits  of  igno- 

50 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


5i 


ranee,  recklessness,  and  greed.  A  death  toll  is  no 
part  of  a  properly  managed  industry.-  It  is  waste¬ 
ful,  wantonly  wasteful.  The  saving  of  life  thus  be¬ 
comes  an  industrial  issue.  In  more  than  one  Ameri¬ 
can  industry  it  has  become  a  gospel  —  a  gospel 
which,  defended  as  a  sound  economic  policy,  is  prac¬ 
tised  with  the  whole-heartedness  and  zeal  of  a  re¬ 
ligion. 

Under  the  impulse  of  this  new  notion  museums  of 
safety  have  been  established;  organisations  nation¬ 
wide  and  including  representatives  of  every  species 
of  industrial  undertaking  have  been  formed;  con¬ 
gresses  have  been  held;  a  literature  is  being  rapidly 
evolved;  educational  campaigns  are  on  foot.  It  is 
a  new  movement  upon  us,  one  devoted  to  the  en¬ 
nobling  and  thrilling  task  of  saving  life. 

How  did  it  start?  To  answer  that  question 
rightly  would  take  us  too  far  afield.  For  our  pur¬ 
poses  the  origin  of  its  motto,  “  Safety  the  First 
Consideration,”  is  sufficient.  I  stumbled  on  that 
three  years  ago  at  the  mouth  of  a  Pennsylvania  coal 
mine.  I  had  spent  a  couple  of  days  in  and  about  the 
shafts,  the  engine  and  pump  rooms,  the  stables  and 
galleries  of  the  mines,  and  in  visiting  the  miners’ 
homes. 

It  was  a  type  of  mine  and  of  miners’  village  that 
I  had  been  fairly  familiar  with  twenty  years  ago. 
The  contrast  was  so  great  that  I  was  filled  with 
joyful  amazement.  I  had  seen  galleries  lighted 
with  electricity,  where  I  had  once  known  only  blaz¬ 
ing  torches.  I  had  found  men  equipped  with  the 


52 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


very  latest  German  electric  mining  lanterns,  where 
before  I  had  been  familiar  with  smoking  oil  lamps 
stuck  in  the  cap.  I  had  seen  comfortable  stables  be¬ 
low  ground  filled  with  fat  mules  and  horses,  and 
talked  with  a  stable  boss  who  gave  a  bonus  to  the 
man  who  was  kindest  to  animals.  I  had  found 
trained  rescue  squads  in  every  mine,  and  had  heard 
the  president  of  the  company  explode  violently  at 
the  idea  of  superintendents  depending  upon  them: 

“  To - with  rescue  work.  Prevent  accidents!  ” 

This,  in  contrast  to  a  time  when,  if  there  was  a 
rescue,  it  was  made  by  ignorant  volunteers,  and  to 
a  president  who  piously  opined  that  death  and  muti¬ 
lation  were  the  will  of  the  Lord. 

After  these  observations  I  was  not  surprised  to 
find  at  the  head  of  a  code  of  rules  posted  about  the 
mines,  and  printed  not  only  in  English  but  in  several 
other  languages : 

“SAFETY  MUST  BE  THE  FIRST  CONSIDERATION  ” 

It  was  not  a  new  order.  It  is  at  least  twenty  years 
since  Thomas  Lynch,  then  president  of  the  H. 
C.  Frick  Coke  Company,  had  made  this  rule. 
Not  the  least  of  the  values  the  Steel  Corporation 
received  when  in  1900  it  absorbed  Mr.  Lynch’s  con¬ 
cern  was  the  slogan  “  Safety  the  First  Considera¬ 
tion  ” ;  though  if  anybody  at  that  time  had  sug¬ 
gested  to  the  makers  of  that  aggregation  that  the 
little  phrase  had  a  value  they  would  probably  have 
met  with  derision. 

Certainly,  if  the  directors  of  the  Steel  Corpora- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


53 


tion  had  been  told  ten  years  ago  that  they  would 
soon  be  spending  three-quarters  of  a  million  of  dol¬ 
lars  annually  in  accident  prevention,  would  be  giving 
of  their  own  time  and  that  of  hundreds  of  em¬ 
ployes,  that  they  would  be  running  hospitals  and  a 
museum,  publishing  books  and  pamphlets  on  safety 
and  sanitation,  they  would  have  resented  the  allega¬ 
tion  as  a  reflection  on  their  business  sense.  Mr. 
Gary  had  difficulty  enough  in  1900  in  committing 
his  directors  to  a  policy  of  publicity.  If  he  had  sug¬ 
gested  the  present  policy  of  safety  his  unfitness  for 
the  position  would  have  been  conclusively  demon¬ 
strated!  “  If  I  had  asked  five  years  ago  for  money 
to  do  what  I  am  urged  to  do  to-day  by  the  direc¬ 
tors  of  this  concern,”  the  superintendent  of  a  big 
rolling  mill  once  said  to  me,  “  I  would  have  been  dis¬ 
charged  on  the  spot.” 

But  the  idea  had  long  been  knocking  at  men’s 
minds.  It  had  shown  itself  in  state  legislation, 
amateurish  and  general  laws  to  be  sure,  amounting 
to  little  more  than  orders  to  guard  machines,  but 
forcing  on  those  industries  at  which  they  were  aimed 
the  necessity  of  studying  the  causes  of  their  accidents 
and,  as  far  as  possible,  devising  safeguards. 

Nearly  all  of  the  first  safety  legislation  concerned 
itself  with  iron  and  steel  and  its  manufacture.  It 
was  time !  This  iron  and  steel  industry  has  a  ter¬ 
rible  death  roll  charged  to  it.  What  more  frightful 
record  of  the  havoc  it  has  wrought  than  the  present 
boast  of  the  Steel  Corporation  that  “  each  year  there 
now  escape  serious  or  fatal  injuries  over  2,300  em- 


54 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ployes  who  would  have  been  injured  under  conditions 
existing  in  1906.”  This,  on  a  pay  roll  of  200,000! 
This  means  what?  Why,  that  before  1906  —  ten 
years  ago  only  —  over  one  per  cent,  of  its  workers 
were  killed  or  seriously  injured;  that  since  1906  they 
have  saved  thousands  of  men  from  death  or  mutila¬ 
tion. 


Fatal  Industrial  Accidents 

Estimate  for  the  United  States  for  1913 


No.  of  Fatal  Industrial 
Employees  Accidents 


MALES 


Pertly  Pertly  Rat*  per 

Esrimatrd  Ettim&ted  100O  Etnp)oy«wb  100  5V>  300 


Metal  Mining 

170.000 

680 

Coal  Mining 

750.000 

2.625 

Fisheries 

150.000 

450 

Navigation 

150.000 

450 

Railroad  Employee* 

1.750.000 

4.200 

Electricians  (Light  and  Power) 

68,000 

153 

Navy  and  Marine  Corps 

62.000 

115 

Quarrying 

150,000 

255 

Lumber  Industry 

531.000 

797 

Soldiers.  U.  S.  Army 

73.000 

109 

Building  and  Construction 

1.500.000 

1.875 

Draymen.  Teamsters.  Etc. 

686.000 

686 

Street  Railway  Employees 

320.000 

320 

Watchmen.  Policemen.  Firemen 

200.000 

150 

Telephone.  Telegraph  (Inc.  Linemen) 

245,000 

123 

Agricultural  Pursuits 

12  000.000 

4.200 

Manufacturing  (General) 

7.277  000 

I.8I5( 

All  Other  Occupied  Males 

4.768.000 

3.508 

MALES 

All  Occupied  Males 

30.760.000 

22.515 

FEMALES 

All  Occupied  Females 

7.200.000 

540 

400 


Note*— 'Approximately  there  are  25.000  Fatal  Industrial  Accidents  per  Annum  in  the  United  State* 

and  300.000  Senous  Injuries 


The  railroads  have  a  record  even  more  startling. 
In  the  year  ending  June,  1913,  there  were  10,964 
persons  killed  on  them  and  200,308  injured.  Yet 
neither  iron  and  steel,  nor  the  railroads,  have  the 
highest  death  toll.  The  table  above  —  the  work  of 
that  careful  statistician  of  the  Prudential  Insurance 
Co.,  Dr.  F.  L.  Hoffman  —  shows  that  metal  mining, 
coal  mining,  the  fisheries,  navigation,  all  kill  a  larger 
number  of  men  per  thousand  employed. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


55 


However,  it  was  at  manufacturing  that  the  first 
safety  laws  were  aimed.  If  machinery  could  be 
made  danger  proof  there  would  be  no  accidents,  and 
so  there  began  an  examination  of  wheels,  gears  and 
belts  and  hammers,  of  every  point,  in  fact,  where  a 
man  might  possibly  be  trapped.  Each  shop  worked 
out  its  own  devices;  the  conviction  of  each  that  it 
has  devised  something  more  practical  than  any 
competitor  is  general.  I  have  listened  to  the  hot¬ 
test  arguments  on  the  merits  of  saw  protectors,  belt 
and  wheel  guards. 

One  of  the  finest  points  about  the  work  is  the  fact 
that  almost  nobody  devising  protective  devices  has 
consented  to  have  them  patented.  Not  long  ago 
I  went  through  a  big  manufacturing  plant  in  Wis¬ 
consin.  There  were  a  number  of  ingenious  safety 
devices  in  use,  all  new  to  me,  the  inventions  of  the 
safety  expert  of  the  plant.  “  Why  do  you  not  have 
these  patented?  ”  I  asked.  It  was  the  same  answer 
that  I  had  received  again  and  again:  “I  couldn’t 
do  it.  It’s  to  save  life.  If  anybody  can  get  any 
help  from  them  he  is  welcome  to  it.” 

The  Steel  Corporation  opens  its  Museum  of 
Safety  in  New  York  to  everybody.  It  freely  gives 
to  all  inquirers  drawings  of  the  various  apparatus 
it  has  devised.  It  also  distributes  on  request  copies 
of  its  “  Standard  Requirements  of  Safety,”  a  vol¬ 
ume  embodying  the  experience  of  its  subsidiaries  in 
preventing  injuries.  “  This  isn’t  the  kind  of  thing 
to  make  money  from!  ”  they’ll  tell  you. 

This  private  work  is  proving  rich  material  for 


56 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


legislators.  It  is  giving  them  definite  information 
as  to  what  they  should  require,  something  impossible 
otherwise  for  them  to  know.  In  Wisconsin  in  the 
last  four  years  the  Industrial  Commission  has  pub¬ 
lished  a  series  of  bulletins  on  various  phases  of 
safety,  in  the  making  of  which  the  experience  of 
many  concerns,  big  and  little,  both  within  and  with¬ 
out  the  State,  has  been  utilised. 

The  method  of  procedure  in  preparing  these  bul¬ 
letins  is  the  same  as  that  employed  in  fixing  the  regu¬ 
lations  for  shop  lighting.  Take,  for  instance,  their 
bulletin  on  elevators.  All  the  experience  on  the 
subject  available  in  the  country  was  gathered  by  the 
commission  and  laid  before  a  committee  made  up  of 
manufacturers,  of  labour  representatives,  and  of 
Mr.  Price,  the  commission  expert.  They  moiled 
and  toiled  for  six  months;  but  when  they  had  fin¬ 
ished  their  work  they  had  a  standard  elevator  which 
the  heaviest  member  of  the  committee,  a  manufac¬ 
turer  weighing  over  two  hundred  pounds,  believed 
could  not  drop  far  enough  to  injure  him.  It  was 
the  first  time  that  a  really  safe  standard  had  been 
set. 

Since  the  Wisconsin  orders  were  issued  it  has 
been  the  general  practice  of  manufacturers  in  this 
State  to  specify  in  the  contract  with  the  elevator 
companies  that  the  elevator  must  conform  to  the 
standards  of  the  commission  and  must  pass  inspec¬ 
tion  before  it  is  paid  for. 

That  manufacturers  are  going  to  require  those 
from  whom  they  buy  machinery  to  conform  to  safety 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


57 


standards  has  been  certain  from  the  beginning  of 
the  safety  device  movement.  Over  four  years  ago 
Mr.  Luther  D.  Burlingame,  the  chief  draftsman  of 
the  Brown  &  Sharpe  Manufacturing  Company  of 
Providence,  a  shop  where  safety  has  long  been  a 
matter  of  real  concern,  said  in  an  article  on  Factory 
Safeguards:  “  I  believe  we  shall  soon  see  the  time 
when  one  of  the  elements  entering  into  the  question 
of  which  of  rival  makes  of  machines  will  be  pur¬ 
chased,  will  be:  Which  is  best  guarded?  ” 

That  time  is  rapidly  coming.  Since  1909  the 
Steel  Corporation  has  had  a  man  in  every  drafting- 
room  checking  all  blue  prints  for  safety.  Min¬ 
nesota  has  a  law  that  every  machine  coming  into 
the  State  shall  be  properly  guarded.  In  the  last  two 
years  I  have  walked  through  miles  of  store-rooms 
where  every  machine  had  guards  as  a  matter  of 
course.  At  the  last  safety  exhibit  in  New  York 
City,  scores  of  safety  devices  were  exhibited  by  pri¬ 
vate  concerns.  In  fact,  a  new  branch  of  industry 
is  fast  developing  out  of  the  safety  crusade. 

That  lives  are  saved  and  injuries  prevented  daily 
by  these  devices  is  true.  Not  many  months  ago  I 
stood  watching  a  saw  at  work  in  a  big  Western  plant, 
when  suddenly  the  heavy  vertical  belt  broke  with  a 
vicious  snap.  It  was  protected,  else  the  man  at  the 
saw  would  certainly  have  been  killed  or  seriously 
injured.  Rarely  have  I  been  through  a  factory  that 
I  have  not  had  similar  demonstration  of  the  value  of 
the  guards. 

But  when  industry  had  really  set  its  mind  on  the 


58 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


question  of  accidents,  and  begun  to  analyse  causes, 
it  saw  that,  while  unguarded,  improperly  built,  and 
improperly  placed  machines  did  work  havoc,  they 
were  by  no  means  responsible  for  the  majority  of 
accidents.  The  great  majority  came  from  trivial 
causes:  slipping  hand  tools,  falls,  stumbling,  the  fail¬ 
ure  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  moving  things  like  cars 
and  cranes.  In  a  careful  investigation  of  100,708 
accidents  the  Steel  Corporation  found  that  44.93  per 
cent,  occurred  in  hand  labour  where  no  safety  device 
was  possible.  It  was  surprising  what  a  large  per¬ 
centage  was  due  to  improper  clothing  of  workmen: 
long-sleeved  jumpers,  loose  neckties,  and  loose  hair. 
In  all  the  shops  there  began  a  crusade  against  these 
things.  At  present  no  factory  issues  a  book  of 
safety  rules  and  regulations  without  including  some 
particular  orders  about  the  kind  of  clothes  a  man 
should  wear. 

An  industry  which  has  always  had  a  heavy  per¬ 
centage  of  accidents  is  the  foundry.  Out  of  5,421 
accidents  in  Wisconsin  in  a  recent  year,  distributed 
over  26  industries,  16.66  per  cent,  were  in  foundries 
and  metal  works.  The  only  industry  outstripping 
it  was  lumber  and  its  manufacturing.  The  bulk  of 
these  foundry  accidents  were  burns  caused  by  the 
spilling,  the  overflowing,  or  the  exploding  of  molten 
metal.  At  least  70  per  cent,  of  these  burns  were  on 
the  feet  and  legs,  and  in  a  majority  of  these  cases 
it  was  found  that  they  would  have  been  prevented  if 
the  workman  had  worn  congress  gaiters  and  hard 
cloth  jean  trousers.  Brown  &  Sharpe  of  Provi- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


59 


dence,  Rhode  Island,  have  for  several  years  sold 
their  men  the  proper  foundry  shoe  at  cost  and  ad¬ 
vised  the  correct  trousers.  All  of  the  foundries 
which  are  taking  up  safety  work  are  following  this 
practice.  One  foundry  of  which  I  know  claims  that 
its  accidents  were  reduced  eighty-five  per  cent,  by 
compelling  the  men  to  wear  congress  gaiters. 

The  foundries  of  the  Commonwealth  Steel  Com¬ 
pany  at  Granite  City,  Illinois,  have  been  paved 
throughout  in  the  interest  both  of  efficiency  and 
safety.  The  difference  between  going  about  in  a 
foot  or  more  of  soft  dirt,  such  as  usually  overlies  a 
foundry  floor,  and  on  this  pavement,  is  that  of 
travelling  on  good  or  on  bad  roads.  A  peculiar 
danger  in  the  foundries  of  this  company  arises  from 
the  quantities  of  wire  in  short  lengths  used  in  rein¬ 
forcing  their  great  steel  castings.  Fragments  are 
scattered  everywhere.  To  remove  these  a  great 
magnet  is  run  at  regular  intervals  over  the  pits  and 
pavement,  in  a  fashion  at  once  thorough  and  magi¬ 
cal.  The  unseen  force  picks  up  these  thousands  of 
pieces,  though  often  buried  out  of  sight. 

Of  course  the  risks,  both  from  machines  and  cloth¬ 
ing,  are  entirely  different  in  different  industries.  In 
the  foundry  it  is  the  molten  metal  that  the  feet  must 
be  guarded  against.  In  the  tannery  it  is  tacks !  At 
one  stage  of  the  work  the  skins  are  fastened  to 
frames  by  tacks  at  least  a  half-inch  in  length.  When 
these  skins  are  jerked  off,  the  tacks  inevitably  are 
scattered  over  the  floor  and  men  frequently  run 
them  into  their  feet,  with  the  danger  of  infection. 


6o 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


To  meet  this,  Pfister  &  Vogel  of  Milwaukee  em¬ 
ploy  a  cobbler,  whose  business  it  is  to  see  that  the 
soles  of  the  shoes  used  in  that  department  are  tack 
proof ! 

In  a  cotton  mill  I  visited  not  long  ago  I  found  the 
industrial  nurse  carrying  on  an  educational  campaign 
among  the  hundreds  of  girls  and  women  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  tight-fitting  dust  caps  and  short-sleeved  work 
aprons.  She  was  depending  for  her  ammunition 
not  only  on  the  danger  from  loose  hair  and  loose 
clothing  but  upon  the  protection  from  dust  and  oil 
which  such  a  uniform  gave.  In  the  sewing  classes 
for  the  girls  which  she  had  introduced,  the  cap  and 
apron  were  made  regularly.  The  innovation  was 
winning  its  way  slowly;  but  the  fact  that  perhaps 
fifty  girls  had  adopted  cap  or  apron,  or  both,  in  a 
year  seemed  to  the  nurse,  wise  in  the  ways  of  human 
beings,  an  encouraging  result.  It  was. 

The  crux  of  the  safety  movement  is  not  in  inani¬ 
mate  things.  It  lies  with  the  men  and  women  con¬ 
cerned.  The  conclusion  of  all  those  who  have  been 
active  in  the  work  is  that  of  the  Wisconsin  Com¬ 
mission  : 

One-third  of  the  accident  reduction  may  be  made  by  safe¬ 
guards. 

Two-thirds  must  be  made  by  inspection,  education  and 
organisation  —  that  is,  by  the  care  of  men. 

Take  the  experience  of  the  head  of  the  Steel  Cor¬ 
poration  Bureau  of  Safety  and  Sanitation,  Mr.  C. 
L.  Close  —  it  is  typical  of  that  of  scores  of  men  in 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


61 


various  industries.  About  eight  years  ago  Mr. 
Close  was  sent  out  by  the  National  Tube  Works  to 
see  if  he  could  reduce  the  accidents  in  their  thirteen 
plants. 

Almost  at  once  he  saw  that  the  machine  guards 
were  but  a  small  part  of  his  problem.  He  saw  it 
demonstrated  again  and  again  that  the  best  devices 
in  the  world  might  be  installed,  and  yet  terrible  ac¬ 
cidents  happen  from  reckless  or  ignorant  handling. 
In  spite  of  the  unusual  danger  of  working  with 
molten  metals  and  in  shaping  red-hot  iron  and  steel 
into  bars  and  plates,  he  found  men  who  seemed  to 
prefer  taking  chances  to  taking  care.  In  number¬ 
less  ways  men  repeatedly  expressed  their  contempt 
for  caution.  One  of  the  most  frequent  signs  of 
their  disapproval  was  battering  the  illuminated  or 
coloured  safety  mottoes  and  directions  which  were 
scattered  through  the  plants.  I  have  several  times 
seen  these  signs  printed  in  four  or  five  languages 
badly  mutilated  —  the  work  of  defiant  and  contempt¬ 
uous  labourers.  This  may  have  expressed  their 
attitude  toward  caution,  or  it  may  have  been  an  ex¬ 
pression  of  dissatisfaction  with  a  boss,  or  the  com¬ 
pany,  or  life  in  general. 

At  all  events,  it  was  very  soon  evident  to  Mr. 
Close,  as  it  was  to  other  casualty  agents  of  the  cor¬ 
poration,  that  a  campaign  of  education  among  the 
men  must  be  carried  on.  They  must  be  taught  to 
respect  safety  and  to  obey  the  rules  laid  down  to 
insure  it.  It  is  at  this  point  that  well-intentioned 
employers  have  often  dropped  their  efforts  to  make 


62 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


life  safer  and  more  tolerable  in  their  factories. 
Why  provide  shields  for  buzz  saws  if  the  workman 
is  going  to  take  them  off  as  soon  as  his  foreman’s 
back  is  turned?  Again  and  again  I  have  heard  this 
buzz  saw  quoted.  It  is  almost  as  familiar  as  the 
reason  for  not  putting  bathtubs  in  the  labourer’s 
cottage  —  somebody  once  found  a  bathtub  filled 
with  coal!  We  are  all  slow  in  learning  that  men 
must  be  taught. 

The  very  indifference  and  hostility  of  the  men 
seem  to  have  put  the  safety  agents  of  the  Steel 
Corporation  on  their  mettle.  They  made  up  their 
minds  that  caution  must  be  taught.  Probably  the 
most  powerful  factor  in  their  educational  campaign 
wa$  the  growing  respect  the  men  saw  given  to  the 
matter  of  safety  by  their  foremen  and  superintend¬ 
ents.  These  hard-worked  individuals  may  be  for¬ 
given,  if  at  the  start  they  looked  on  the  undertaking 
as  “  a  sop  to  the  public.”  Their  first  business  had 
been  to  produce  tonnage,  their  great  ambition  was 
to  produce  more  tonnage  than  anybody  else  was  do¬ 
ing.  If  they  maimed  or  killed  a  man  they  accepted 
it  as  a  part  of  the  day’s  work,  as  we,  the  public, 
accept  the  daily  slaughter  by  our  automobiles,  our 
theatre  fires,  and  our  bursting  dams. 

What  they  soon  discovered,  however,  was  that 
safety  was  business.  A  multitude  of  things  in  the 
plants  of  the  corporation  impressed  this  upon  them. 
They  saw  the  company  spending  tens  of  thousands 
of  dollars  in  mechanical  safety  devices.  They  and 
their  crews  were  offered  rewards  for  suggestions, 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


63 


and  frequently  large  sums  were  paid  for  ideas  which 
the  “  safety  men  ”  considered  practical.  They 
heard  of  safety  conferences  at  the  steel  company’s 
headquarters  in  New  York  and  finally  of  a  Corpora¬ 
tion  Committee  which  was  to  act  as  a  clearing  house 
for  all  that  they  and  the  other  plants  discovered. 

From  time  to  time  members  of  this  committee 
appeared,  and  they  heard  discussions  over  the  most 
practical  netting  for  guards;  possible  prevention  of 
explosions  —  scores  of  matters  which,  it  is  prob¬ 
able,  they  never  before  had  heard  spoken  of  by  a 
superior.  And  if  they  had  an  accident,  investiga¬ 
tors  appeared,  the  cause  was  found,  means  to  pre¬ 
vent  a  repetition  were  devised.  Safety  was  an  is¬ 
sue.  Something  they  must  take  hold  of  hard  if 
they  were  to  keep  their  rank  in  the  plants.  The 
further  the  work  was  carried  the  more  sensible  Mr. 
Close  and  his  colleagues  became  that  safety  was  up 
to  the  men;  that  they  were  the  best  inspectors  and 
guardians.  To  organise  them,  to  instruct  them  and 
to  inspire  them  with  safety  enthusiasm,  they  con¬ 
cluded  to  be  their  chief  function.  The  outcome  of 
this  undertaking  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  pieces 
of  co-operative  work  which  we  have  seen  in  industry 
in  this  country.  The  entire  Steel  Corporation, 
from  the  New  York  end  to  the  remotest  mines  of  the 
West,  is  in  this  organisation.  Each  department  in 
each  plant  has  its  safety  committee,  and  always 
these  committees  have  on  them  one  or  more  men 
from  the  ranks.  During  1913  there  were  7,300 
employes  who  made  inspection  or  served  upon  com- 


64 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


mittees.  These  employes  are  changed  frequently, 
so  that  in  course  of  time  each  man  in  the  plant  will 
have  served.  The  same  practice  prevails  on  the 
Northwestern  Railroad. 

Their  success  in  this  organisation  has  been  re¬ 
markable,  and  this  has  been  very  largely  due  to  their 
own  enthusiasm.  This  enthusiasm  has  been  a  grad¬ 
ual  growth.  Take  Mr.  Close’s  own  case.  I  doubt 
very  much  if  when  he  was  first  sent  to  the  National 
Tube  Company’s  Works  as  a  safety  inspector  he 
relished  the  idea.  It  possibly  did  not  seem  to  him 
a  man’s  job.  Moreover,  he  was  in  the  line  of  pro¬ 
motion,  and  such  are  the  chances  in  iron-  and  steel¬ 
making  for  those  who  have  reached  the  point  where 
he  was  that  he  might  fairly  have  hoped  to  hold  a 
position  of  large  responsibility.  At  the  moment, 
too,  he  probably  shared  the  fatalistic  opinion  that  ac¬ 
cidents  are  inevitable,  and  that  you  must  take  yours 
like  a  man  when  it  comes.  Whatever  doubt  lurked 
in  his  mind  at  the  start,  whatever  callousness  toward 
accidents  he  may  have  harboured,  they  have  long 
since  been  submerged  in  one  of  the  most  absolute 
faiths  in  a  work  I  ever  encountered,  coupled  with 
an  enthusiasm  as  contagious  as  it  is  genuine.  Safety 
in  steel-making  has  put  all  ideas  of  ever  making  steel 
again  out  of  Mr.  Close’s  mind  —  all  he  wants  in 
life,  apparently,  is  the  opportunity  to  spread  his 
gospel.  And  he  is  but  a  type  of  many  men  in  the 
safety  work  of  the  country’s  industries. 

It  took  time  and  patient  work  to  educate  fore¬ 
men  and  superintendents  to  this  belief  in  and  en- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


65 


thusiasm  for  safety.  It  took  time  to  educate  any 
considerable  force  of  the  men.  Every  human  ap¬ 
peal  has  been  made  in  the  campaign.  Good  results 
have  come  from  arousing  a  spirit  of  rivalry  between 
different  departments.  Score-cards  are  kept,  and 
“How’s  your  batting  average?”  is  almost  as  ac¬ 
ceptable  a  question  in  the  Illinois  Steel  Works  ap¬ 
plied  to  safety  as  it  is  to  baseball.  At  one  of  the 
mines  of  the  Frick  Coke  Company  I  saw  a  superin¬ 
tendent  almost  in  tears  because  his  rescue  squad, 
which  two  years  before  had  taken  a  first-prize  in 
an  international  contest  held  in  Washington,  had 
lost  its  place  in  a  local  contest  by  one  eighth  of  one 
per  cent. ! 

The  safety  bulletins  published  and  circulated  in 
these  plants  give  these  records,  of  course,  and  the 
men  watch  them  eagerly.  They  print,  too,  descrip¬ 
tions  of  accidents  and  near  accidents  which,  simply 
as  problems,  interest  the  workmen  and  of  course 
quicken  and  instruct  their  wits.  Here  are  a  few 
samples  drawn  from  the  admirably  edited  bulletins 
of  Mr.  Robert  J.  Young,  the  head  of  the  safety 
wwk  in  the  Illinois  Steel  Company: 

Description:  The  injured  man  and  fellow  workmen 
were  on  a  lean-to,  repairing  a  stack.  The  yard  crane  runs 
close  to  the  lean-to,  and  the  three  men  were  standing  and 
leaning  their  arms  on  the  crane  runway.  The  crane  came 
along,  two  of  them  got  out  of  the  way,  but  the  third  man 
allowed  his  arm  to  remain  on  the  track,  and  owing  to  the 
guard  on  the  crane  wheel  having  been  broken  the  day  be¬ 
fore  this  man’s  arm  was  caught,  fracturing  the  arm  so  badly 


66 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


that  it  was  necessary  to  amputate  between  the  shoulder  and 
elbow. 

Suggestion:  Investigation  shows  that  the  breaking  and 
dropping  off  of  the  crane  guard  had  not  been  reported.  In¬ 
vestigation  further  disclosed  that  had  this  guard  been  in 
place  this  accident  would  not  have  happened,  and  I  desire 
to  bring  this  to  your  attention  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
the  importance  of  having  our  crane  wheels  guarded,  and  the 
prompt  report  by  the  craneman  on  blanks  provided,  when 
safety  devices  are  out  of  order. 

The  department  of  “  near  accidents  ”  is  conducted 
in  the  same  fashion.  Every  issue  contains  a  list  of 
“  known  cases  where  safety  devices  have  prevented 
accidents.” 

Here  are  samples: 

When  Blast  Furnace  No.  io,  South  Works,  was  blown 
out,  it  was  the  last  furnace  in  a  battery  of  six  to  shut  down, 
and  because  of  the  danger  of  a  serious  explosion  under  these 
circumstances  the  dust  catchers  and  furnace  were  railed  off. 

There  was  a  very  serious  explosion,  wrecking  the  central 
dust  catcher  of  No.  9  and  10  furnaces.  Because  of  the 
precaution  taken  by  the  Blast  Furnace  management,  no  one 
was  injured. 

Mr.  Murray,  superintendent  of  the  spike  and  bolt  fac¬ 
tory  at  the  Joliet  Works,  reports  that  last  month  an  emery 
wheel  22  inches  in  diameter,  3  inches  face,  ij^-inch  hole, 
safety  shaped,  cracked  through  the  centre  while  running 
1,100  r.  p.  m.,  but  that  the  pieces  were  held  in  place  securely 
by  the  safety  collars  and  no  one  was  hurt. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


67 


Frequently  it  has  been  wise  to  carry  on  a  special 
campaign  for  or  against  some  practice  hard  to  cor¬ 
rect  or  break  up.  Take  the  wearing  of  goggles: 
It  is  as  difficult  to  persuade  men  to  wear  them  as  it 
is  to  keep  the  guards  on  circular  saws,  yet  a  number 
of  necessary  tasks,  such  as  grinding  metals  on  emery 
wheels,  chipping  metals  by  hand,  pouring  babbitt, 
handling  molten  metal,  are  constantly  injuring  eyes. 
Good  graphic  work  to  show  the  extent  of  these  in¬ 
juries  and  the  ease  with  which  they  might  have  been 
avoided  has  been  done  by  Mr.  Young  in  the  bulletin. 
He  has  published  a  page  of  ninety-one  pairs  of  gog¬ 
gles  shattered  or  injured  by  flying  steel  chips  in  the 
plants  of  American  steel  foundries  in  a  period  of 
three  months.  Often  a  gruesome  sense  of  what 
might  have  happened  to  a  pair  of  eyes  is  driven  in 
by  picturing  a  single  pair  of  goggles  battered  by  an 
accident. 

Often  when  a  man  cannot  be  interested  in  safety 
as  a  game,  cannot  be  frightened  or  wheedled  into 
precaution,  he  will  yield  to  the  appeal,  “  Look  out 
for  the  other  man;  you  might  hurt  him.  If  you 
have  no  wife  or  child  to  protect,  another  man  may 
have !  ” 

The  results  of  this  education  and  organisation  in 
the  Steel  Corporation  have  been  amazing.  Fully 
sixty  per  cent,  of  their  accident  reduction  is  charged 
to  it.  It  is  a  most  complete  demonstration  that  you 
cannot  plan  and  build  safety;  you  cannot  legislate 
safety;  you  must  work  together  for  it.  Perhaps, 
after  all,  the  greatest  contribution  which  the  Steel 


68 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Corporation  will  make  to  American  industry  will  be 
the  demonstration  of  the  advantages  of  collective 
action.  Certainly,  its  safety  organisation  is  the 
greatest  of  the  many  contributions  it  has  made  to 
the  safety  movement.  Many  industries  are  adapt¬ 
ing  it  to  their  particular  cases. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  one  of  the  new  industrial 
ideas  has  proved  so  conclusively  that  it  is  good 
economy  to  conserve  human  life,  even  that  life 
which  in  our  ignorance  we  have  dared  to  call  mean, 
as  this  gospel  of  safety.  Accidents  have  always 
been  a  frightful  drain  on  business.  In  1912  the 
railroads  paid  out  over  $30,000,000  on  account  of 
personal  injuries.  In  the  three  years  of  19 1 1,  1912, 
and  1913  the  casualty  expense  of  the  Steel  Corpora¬ 
tion  was  nearly  seven  and  three-quarters  millions  of 
dollars.  This  is  an  enormous  sum,  but  if  the  con¬ 
ditions  which  prevailed  in  the  industry  in  1906  had 
continued,  that  is,  if  the  Steel  Corporation  had  not 
been  spending  around  three-quarters  of  a  million  a 
year  for  safety  work,  the  casualty  expense  would 
have  been  more  than  twrelve  and  a  quarter  millions. 
What  it  amounts  to  is  that  in  three  years  they 
made  a  total  net  saving,  through  safety  work,  of 
$2,697,115.19. 

The  reduction  in  the  number  of  accidents  has 
everywhere  been  spectacular.  The  superintendent 
of  the  Harvester  Company  says  that,  comparing  the 
year  1913  with  1911  and  1912,  the  number  of  ac¬ 
cidents  in  their  group  of  plants  in  Illinois  showed  a 
reduction  of  about  16  per  cent.  In  the  waggon  plant 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


69 


there  was  a  reduction  of  over  30  per  cent,  and  in 
the  twine  plant  of  about  21  per  cent.  This  reduc¬ 
tion  was  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  there  was  a  large 
increase  in  the  number  of  employes  in  this  period. 
New  employes  are  always  an  increased  hazard. 
The  Fairbanks  Manufacturing  Company  of  Beloit, 
Wisconsin,  claims  that  in  1912  the  time  lost  through 
accidents  was  7 6  per  cent,  less  than  in  1907  —  a 
saving  attributed  solely  to  their  safety  campaign. 

Mr.  John  W.  Maple,  of  the  Pfister  &  Vogel 
Leather  Company,  reported  to  the  Wisconsin  In¬ 
dustrial  Commission  that  in  1912,  when  their  present 
system  of  accident  preventions  was  in  full  sway,  they 
reduced  machinery  accidents  50  per  cent.,  compared 
with  1908  and  1909,  when  the  shops  were  running 
under  about  the  same  conditions,  but  without  the 
present  precautions. 

The  showing  of  the  railroads  in  the  short  time 
since  they  began  to  follow  the  example  set  them  by 
Mr.  Ralph  Richards  on  the  Northwestern  has  been 
amazing.  In  1912  the  Delaware  and  Lackawanna, 
the  first  of  the  Eastern  roads  to  organise  its  force 
and  to  publish  bulletins,  reduced  the  number  killed, 
as  compared  with  19 11,  by  35  per  cent.,  the  number 
injured  by  25  per  cent.,  the  number  of  amputations 
by  50  per  cent.,  and  this  notwithstanding  the  traffic 
in  1913  was  heavier  than  ever  before  in  the  history 
of  the  road.  One  could  go  on  with  scores  of  such 
examples.1 

1  At  the  congress  held  in  October,  1914,  in  Chicago,  by  the  Na¬ 
tional  Council  for  Industrial  Safety,  there  was  a  bulletin  among 


70 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


This  reduction  of  suffering  has  an  excellent  effect 
on  the  labouring  body.  It  naturally  increases  the  ef¬ 
ficiency  and  contentment  of  the  shop.  The  men  in 
the  ranks  recognise  that  they  have  a  big  part  in 
producing  results,  and  they  become  proud  of  the 
work.  It  is  a  wonderful  lesson  in  the  value  of  co¬ 
operative  effort,  both  for  employer  and  employes. 
Moreover,  it  shows  how  efforts  may  be  made  co¬ 
operative,  something  which  both  labour  and  capital 
have  poorly  understood. 

the  exhibits  giving  the  percentages  of  reduction  through  efficient 
safety  work  in  the  following  group  of  manufacturing  and  transpor¬ 
tation  concerns.  They  show  more  effectively  than  much  writing  the 
suffering  that  has  been  taken  from  the  world  by  this  movement: 

INDUSTRIES:  Bucyrus  Company,  46  per  cent.;  Cadillac  Motor 
Company,  22  per  cent.;  Commonwealth  Edison  Company,  40  per 
cent.;  Eastman  Kodak  Company,  73  per  cent.;  Fairbanks  Morse 
Company,  72  per  cent.;  Harrison  Bros.  &  Company,  Inc.,  68  per 
cent.;  Illinois  Steel  Company,  70  per  cent.;  Inland  Steel  Company, 
55  per  cent.;  International  Harvester  Company  (Wisconsin  Steel 
Company  plant),  68  per  cent.;  Jones  &  Laughlin  Steel  Company, 
71  per  cent.;  A.  J.  Lindemann  &  Hoverson  Company,  62  per  cent.; 
Milwaukee  Coke  &  Gas  Company,  28  per  cent.;  Packard  Motor 
Car  Company,  67  per  cent.;  Pullman  Company,  70  per  cent.;  Rari¬ 
tan  Copper  Works,  22  per  cent.;  Rochester  Railway  &  Light  Com¬ 
pany,  45  per  cent.;  Swift  &  Company,  48  per  cent.;  U.  S.  Steel 
Corporation,  11,074  men  saved  from  serious  injury  or  death  since 
1908. 

TRANSPORTATION:  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railway, 
36  per  cent.;  Chicago,  Burlington  &  Quincy  R.  R.  Company,  31  per 
cent.;  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Railway,  25  per  cent.;  Chicago,  St. 
Paul,  Minneapolis  &  Omaha  Railway,  34  per  cent.;  Chicago  Sur¬ 
face  Lines  (reduction  in  accidents  to  school  children),  75  per  cent.; 
Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  Western  Railway,  38  per  cent.;  El  Paso 
&  Southwestern  System,  42  per  cent.;  New  York  Central  Lines,  30 
per  cent.;  Northern  Pacific  Railway,  35  per  cent.;  Oregon  Short 
Lines,  39  per  cent.;  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  30  per  cent.;  St.  Louis 
&  San  Francisco  Railroad,  38  per  cent.;  Southern  Pacific  Railway, 
52  per  cent.;  Missouri  Pacific,  45  per  cent. 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


71 


There  is  no  point  of  the  safety  work  which  makes 
a  deeper  impression  on  the  labourer  .and  does  more 
to  prevent  suffering  than  the  provisions  which  are 
made  generally  now  to  give  first  aid  to  the  injured. 
They  run  from  a  simple  first-aid-to-the-injured  kit  to 
a  fully  equipped  hospital  with  nurses  and  doctors 
always  in  attendance.  Under  the  new  order 
wounds,  if  mere  scratches,  are  immediately  dressed; 
and  for  those  seriously  hurt  there  is  from  the  in¬ 
stant  the  most  scientific  care. 

The  effect  of  all  this  equipment  is  excellent;  some¬ 
body  cares.  Under  the  old  system  nobody  cared,  or 
so  it  seemed. 

But  will  the  safety  movement  prove  more  than  a 
flash  in  the  pan  —  one  of  those  quick  enthusiasms 
which  seize  a  body,  and  then  quickly  subside  under 
the  strain  and  stress  of  the  daily  burdens?  There 
are  the  best  of  reasons  for  believing  it  is  a  per¬ 
manent  thing.  In  the  first  place,  the  most  essential 
side  of  safety  is  education,  and  as  a  whole  the  prac¬ 
tical  men  in  the  movement  are  trying  to  extend  the 
education  beyond  the  shops  and  factories ;  to  commit 
the  world  at  large  to  the  ideas.  Possibly  the  most 
effective  thing  they  are  attempting  is  to  interest  boys 
and  girls.  In  many  steel  towns  this  is  done  by  hold¬ 
ing  occasional  safety  meetings  where  moving  pic¬ 
tures  are  shown,  illustrating  how  accidents  happen 
and  how  they  may  be  avoided.  The  Delaware  and 
Lackawanna,  seizing  on  the  idea,  is  offering  pre¬ 
miums  to  railroad  boys  and  girls  for  the  best  safety 
poem.  Some  of  the  results  have  appeared  in  the 


72 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


lively  bulletin  of  the  road.  They  may  not  be  very 
strong  as  verse,  but  you  cannot  read  the  effort  of  a 
boy  who  has  lost  his  leg  by  an  accident,  or  a  girl 
who  has  lost  a  father,  without  a  gulp  in  the  throat. 

The  New  York  Central  Railroad  has  been  par¬ 
ticularly  energetic  in  its  education  of  the  public.  It 
keeps  constantly  on  the  road  a  moving  picture  car; 
not  only  the  men  and  their  families  are  invited  to  the 
exhibitions,  but  frequently  the  public.  Marcus  A. 
Dow,  the  head  of  the  Safety  Bureau,  has  worked 
out  two  or  three  typical  movie  melodramas,  show¬ 
ing  how  accidents  happen,  and  the  misery  that  they 
cause.  This  railroad  is  also  carrying  on  an  ad¬ 
mirable  campaign  against  trespassing.  When  we 
blame  the  railroad  for  the  number  of  people 
that  it  kills  and  injures,  we  do  not  usually  take  into 
consideration  that  anybody  but  the  railroad  is  to 
blame,  yet  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission  in 
1912  declared  more  than  5,000  persons  are  killed  in 
this  country  each  year  while  trespassing  on  railroad 
tracks.  The  Safety  Department  of  the  New  York 
Central  is  specialising  on  this  abuse.  During  1914, 
as  compared  with  the  year  1913,  they  decreased  the 
deaths  of  trespassers  by  19  per  cent.  They  are 
working  for  laws  against  trespassers.  It  is  a  curi¬ 
ous  fact  that  there  are  35  States  in  the  Union  which 
do  not  prohibit  persons  walking  on  railroads  and 
rights  of  way.  In  various  other  ways  they  are  try¬ 
ing  to  put  an  end  to  carelessness  in  the  place  where  it 
most  frequently  exists,  that  is  the  general  public. 

What  the  “  safety  boosters,”  as  they  call  them- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


73 


selves,  aim  at  is  the  safety  habit,  both  within  and 
without  industry.  If  they  can  train-  us  to  it  —  we 
who  write  articles  on  their  carelessness  and  pass 
laws  to  restrain  them,  while  we  kill  ourselves  and 
others  by  reckless  handling  of  automobiles  and  reck¬ 
less  insistence  on  speed  and  luxuries,  they  will  have 
rendered  the  world  a  great  service. 

One  of  the  strongest  guarantees  that  safety  has 
come  to  stay  lies  in  the  fact  that  employers  are  bind¬ 
ing  themselves  voluntarily,  or  are  being  forced  to 
bind  themselves,  by  laws  to  full  liability  for  all  in¬ 
juries. 

According  to  the  American  Labour  Legislation 
Review  there  are  workmen’s  compensation  laws  in 
33  States  and  territories,  that  is,  the  Review  says: 

It  is  simpler  now  to  enumerate  the  States  which  are  still 
without  such  legislation.  They  are  Alabama,  Arkansas, 
Delaware,  Florida,  Georgia,  Idaho,  Kentucky,  Mississippi, 
Missouri,  New  Mexico,  North  Carolina,  North  Dakota, 
South  Carolina,  South  Dakota,  Tennessee,  Utah  and  Vir¬ 
ginia.  Nearly  all  of  these  are  Southern  States  and  only 
one  of  them,  Missouri,  is  a  State  having  one  of  the  great 
centres  of  population. 

The  laws  vary  naturally  with  the  kinds  of  in¬ 
dustries  to  which  they  apply.  They  vary  in  gen¬ 
erosity  and  in  compelling  force;  but  that  they  will 
all  eventually  come  up  to  the  most  highly  developed 
form  is  certain.  In  many  cases  they  will  come  there 
by  not  only  the  consent,  but  the  influence  and  advice 
of  employers. 


74 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


But  devices  and  organisations  forced  by  law  on 
a  man  arouse  no  great  enthusiasm  in  him;  you  won’t 
find  his  eyes  glowing  or  his  tongue  eloquent  over  the 
fact  that  he  is  forced  to  prevent  accidents  in  order 
to  save  expense.  That  is  not  the  way  men  are  made. 
But  in  this  safety  work  we  do  find  enthusiasm,  the 
most  genuine,  the  most  sustained.  It  comes  from 
the  realisation  that  at  least  half  of  the  terrible  scenes 
which  have  become  a  commonplace  to  them,  the  suf¬ 
fering  which  they  have  steeled  themselves  to  see 
without  emotion,  is  preventable,  that  the  other  half 
can  be  in  many  cases  softened  and  mitigated. 

“  I  cannot  tell  you  what  it  means  to  me  to  see  this 
place  made  safe,”  the  expert  in  a  big  manufacturing 
concern  told  me  once.  “  I  have  seen  scores  of  legs 
and  arms  cut  off  in  my  time,  and  once  a  man  cut  in 
two  by  a  saw.  I  had  hardened  myself  to  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  it;  but  to  have  it  put  up  to  me  to  stop  it, 
to  have  safety  a  first  consideration,  that  is  one  of  the 
greatest  experiences  of  my  life.” 

Converted  superintendents  and  manufacturers 
make  wonderful  advocates.  They  can  tell  you  of 
what  they  have  seen,  what  they  are  saving  men  from. 
Perhaps  as  substantial  evidence  as  we  have  had  of 
the  whole-heartedness  which  they  often  put  into 
safety  and  related  work  comes  from  Wisconsin, 
where,  so  Commissioner  Beck  writes,  a  band  of 
thirty  manufacturers  recently  went  out  boosting 
safety  and  sanitation.  What  a  contrast  to  a  day 
when  the  manufacturer  went  about  decrying  as  “  in¬ 
terference  with  personal  liberty  ”  every  effort,  pri- 


THE  GOSPEL  OF  SAFETY 


75 


vate  or  public,  at  industrial  safety  and  sanita¬ 
tion  ! 

Any  one  familiar  with  old  conditions  and  the  new 
understands  what  experts  mean  when  they  tell  you 
that  safety  meetings  are  frequently  like  prayer  meet¬ 
ings.  My  own  first  glimpse  of  the  work  taught  me 
that.  I  was  making  a  casual  visit  to  the  National 
Tube  Works  at  McKeesport,  Pennsylvania.  I  had 
gone  to  the  plant  with  a  vivid  picture  in  my  mind  of 
the  plants  in  and  around  Pittsburgh  and  Youngstown 
in  other  days  —  dark,  disorderly,  crowded  places 
where  one  dodged  danger  at  every  step,  and  where 
even  ordinary  precautions  were  scouted  by  men  and 
bosses  as  “  nonsense.” 

I  had  some  terrible  memories  to  take  with  me,  for 
I  had  been  close  at  hand  once  when  a  smelting  fur¬ 
nace  burst  and  the  flood  of  molten  iron  had  caught 
a  dozen  labourers  at  work  on  the  pig-bed.  I  had 
seen  the  victims  of  an  overturned  ladle  carried  to 
their  homes.  All  my  old  impressions  were  de¬ 
stroyed  at  a  glance,  for  I  was  confronted  with  an 
order  in  yard  and  plant  that  I  had  supposed  impos¬ 
sible  in  steel-  and  iron-making.  There  was  all  the 
cleanliness  compatible  with  anything  in  the  vicinity 
of  Pittsburgh,  and  as  for  safety  —  it  was  an 
armoured  shop  as  far  as  gears  and  wheels  and 
screws  were  concerned.  I  saw  what  was  done  for 
the  fellow  who  was  injured  —  the  hospital  in  the 
yard  with  nurse  and  doctor.  I  heard  of  the  vol¬ 
untary  compensation  scheme  which  was  in  operation, 
and  as  I  saw  these  things  I  compared  them  with  my 


76 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


old  impressions.  Well!  It  was  like  a  prayer  meet¬ 
ing. 

But  there  is  another  side  to  this  safety  movement 
which  may,  after  all,  be  the  best  guarantee  of  its 
permanency.  It  is  what  it  has  done  for  the  em¬ 
ployer:  it  has  given  him  a  new  notion  of  his  own 
work.  It  lifts  it  from  the  realm  of  mere  profit 
and  production  and  places  it  among  the  great 
undertakings  which  serve  men.  He  sees  himself  as 
something  more  than  a  maker  of  things.  He  is  a 
saver  of  life  and  suffering.  His  industry  has  be¬ 
come  an  important  link  in  the  chain  of  human  in¬ 
stitutions  which  minister  to  men.  It  is  consciousness 
of  this  which  adds  to  the  tremendous  enthusiasm  for 
safety,  and  makes  of  it  a  Gospel. 


CHAPTER  IV 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 

Very  like  the  safety  movement  in  genesis,  meth¬ 
ods  and  enthusiasm  is  the  less  developed  industrial 
health  movement.  Its  slogan  is  Health  for  Every¬ 
man.  Like  the  safety  movement  it  wars  on  evils 
which  the  average  employer  has  long  contended 
were  none  of  his  business,  but  which  having  finally 
accepted,  he  is  attacking  with  hard  common  sense 
and  professional  thoroughness. 

Two  classes  of  disease  trouble  industry.  The 
first  are  those  incident  to  the  occupation,  trade 
diseases. 

There  is  no  class,  trade,  profession  or  activity  of 
men  and  women  which  does  not  have  a  possible 
physical  evil  accompanying  it.  A  book  has  been 
written  on  the  “  Disorders  of  People  of  Fashion 
one  might  equally  well  be  written  on  the  “Disor¬ 
ders  of  Bankers  and  Brokers.”  Writers  have  their 
cramp  and  artists  their  colic.  If  classes  with  the 
means  to  control  their  conditions  and  to  secure  the 
best  advice  on  avoiding  the  evils  incident  to  their 
work  still  are  so  afflicted  that  they  are  the  support 
of  hundreds  of  Cures  as  well  as  of  tens  of  thousands 
of  physicians  and  nurses,  masseurs  and  pharmacists, 
what  can  we  expect  of  the  millions  in  industries 

77 


78 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


where  they  have  no  control  over  surroundings  and 
no  instruction  as  to  the  dangers  of  their  occupations. 
These  diseases  which  have  made  frightful  havoc 
with  national  health  come  from  dozens  of  different 
causes.  They  are  the  results  of  poisonous  metals 
and  gases,  of  inflaming  dusts  and  germs,  of  air  pres¬ 
sure  and  of  strain.  The  potter  is  in  danger  of 
lead  poisoning,  the  match-maker  of  “  phossy 
jaw”;  textile-workers  fear  tuberculosis,  washer¬ 
women  eczema.  The  stonemasons,  sugar-refiners, 
candy-makers  all  have  skin  diseases  peculiar  to 
their  trades.  Gardeners  are  in  danger  of  poison¬ 
ing  from  the  seventy  or  more  irritant  plants  they 
handle.  Anthrax  threatens  those  who  work  with 
animals  or  animal  products, —  whether  they  be  sort¬ 
ers,  butchers,  shepherds  or  cattle  salesmen.  There 
is  a  big  range  of  tremors  and  palsies,  of  spasms  and 
neuroses  traceable  to  shop  and  factory  conditions. 
Eye  strains  from  improper  lighting  and  from  too 
fixed  and  too  continuous  attention  as  well  as  injuries 
from  dust  and  gases  are  very  general  in  many  occu¬ 
pations.  Our  growing  knowledge  of  the  causes  of 
many  ailments  which  we  have  accepted  as  inevitable 
and  the  realisation  of  the  enormous  influence  these 
things  have  on  unhappiness  and  on  inefficiency  have 
been  a  sharp  spur  to  the  efforts  of  all  those  who  are 
interested  in  industry  in  any  way.  The  intelligent 
employer  is  coming  to  a  point  in  regard  to  occupa¬ 
tional  disease  very  like  that  he  has  towards  safety. 
“  Show  me  the  disease  and  I  will  find  a  way  to  pre¬ 
vent  its  ravages.”  But  just  as  safety  is  one-third 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


79 


prevention  and  two-thirds  education  and  organisa¬ 
tion,  so  in  occupational  diseases  education  and  or¬ 
ganisation  are  the  biggest  factors. 

Take  the  matter  of  lead  poisoning  of  which  we 
hear  so  much.  After  every  mechanical  precaution 
has  been  taken  —  the  care  of  the  operative  still  is  the 
most  important  factor.  His  education  and  strict 
supervision  are  essential,  and  this  is  now  being  un¬ 
dertaken  in  many  different  industries. 

The  American  Museum  of  Safety  is  recommend¬ 
ing  in  its  excellent  bulletin  “  Safety  ”  the  following 
set  of  rules  adopted  over  two  years  ago  by  the  Edi¬ 
son  Illuminating  Company.  It  is  a  little  fuller  but 
no  better  than  several  other  sets  of  rules  which  I 
have  examined: 

1.  Do  not  work  on  an  empty  stomach;  this  is  especially 
important,  as  the  stomach  when  empty  readily  absorbs  lead. 

2.  Do  not  put  the  fingers  in  the  mouth  or  take  food  while 
at  wrork. 

3.  Keep  the  finger  nails  cut  short  and  clean. 

4.  Do  not  chew  tobacco  while  at  work.  In  handling 
tobacco,  the  lead  oxides  are  carried  from  the  hands  to  the 
mouth.  Chewing  tobacco  does  not  prevent  the  user  from 
swallowing  the  lead,  as  often  believed. 

5.  When  leaving  work  and  before  eating,  wash  the  face, 
hands  and  arms  with  soap,  and  thoroughly  cleanse  the  mouth, 
nose  and  finger  nails. 

6.  Do  not  eat  lunch  in  the  same  room  in  which  there  is 
lead  dust. 

7.  Drink  plenty  of  good  milk;  it  is  a  valuable  preventa¬ 
tive  of  lead  poisoning. 


8o 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


8.  Whenever  in  the  least  constipated,  take  a  dose  of  Ep¬ 
som  salts.  It  will  do  no  harm  to  do  this  regularly.  It  is 
exceedingly  important  that  the  bowels  be  kept  in  good  con¬ 
dition. 

9.  Take  a  bath  frequently;  cleanliness  is  the  best  preven¬ 
tion  of  lead  poisoning. 

10.  Working  clothes  should  be  left  at  the  place  of  work. 

11.  It  is  better  not  to  wear  a  moustache  or  beard,  as  they 
collect  dust.  If  worn,  they  should  be  cut  short  and  kept 
clean.  A  cap  should  be  wTorn  to  cover  the  hair. 

12.  When  sweeping,  always  dampen  the  floor  to  prevent 
raising  dust. 

13.  When  working  where  there  is  lead  dust,  wear  a 
respirator.  A  good  respirator  can  be  made  of  several  thick¬ 
nesses  of  gauze  or  cheese  cloth  and  should  be  washed  every 
day. 

14.  Do  not  drink  alcoholic  liquors  while  at  work,  or 
better,  avoid  their  use  entirely.  Whiskey  does  not  cut  the 
lead  in  the  system,  as  some  believe.  Alcohol  always  weakens 
the  system  and  makes  it  more  susceptible  to  lead  poisoning. 

15.  In  work  where  lead  comes  in  contact  with  the  hands, 
wear  gloves  as  much  as  possible  and  wash  and  dry  each  day 
when  used. 

16.  The  wearing  of  goggles  will  prevent  the  splashing  of 
wet  sediment  or  acid  in  the  eyes  when  repairing  cells. 

17.  When  melting  lead  with  a  hydrogen  flame,  as  when 
burning  plates  to  bus  bars  or  repairing  tank  linings,  the  fumes 
given  off  may  be  blown  away  from  the  man  operating  the 
flame  by  a  suitably  directed  stream  of  air.  (The  air  supply 
for  the  flame  may  be  tapped  for  this  purpose.) 

It  is  obvious  that  such  rules  call  for  a  genuine 
co-operation  from  the  employer  who  adopts  them. 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


81 


A  workman  cannot  keep  clean  without  plentiful  sup¬ 
plies  of  hot  and  cold  water,  of  soap  and  towels  as 
well  as  of  basins.  If  the  lunch  is  to  be  eaten  out¬ 
side  of  the  work  room  there  must  be  a  lunch  room. 
If  work  clothes  are  to  be  left  at  the  factory  there 
must  be  lockers.  If  gloves  and  goggles  and  respira¬ 
tors  and  milk  are  required  there  must  be  provisions 
for  them.  The  employer  who  is  intelligent  enough 
to  set  these  rules  will  be  intelligent  enough  to  make  it 
possible  for  the  workman  to  obey  them. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  secure  co-operation  from 
the  labour  force  even  when  the  best  equipment  has 
been  provided  and  the  most  careful  instruction 
given.  The  difficulties  of  persuading  men  and 
women  to  wear  respirators  where  there  is  irritating 
or  toxic  dust  is  even  greater  than  that  of  persuad¬ 
ing  those  who  use  emery  wheels  to  wear  goggles  or 
those  who  run  saws  to  keep  on  the  guards.  An  eye 
out,  a  finger  off  is  the  terrible  lesson  which  enforces 
the  use  of  goggles  and  guards  but  dust  gives  no  such 
spectacular  demonstration.  Its  victims  grow  pale 
and  drop  out.  Their  companions  accept  death  as 
one  of  the  mysteries  of  life  inevitable  and  unescap- 
able,  or  as  the  “  will  of  God.”  To  teach  them  the 
connection  between  the  death  and  the  dust  is  a  slow 
process  but  it  is  the  obvious  duty  of  those  who  em¬ 
ploy  them. 

The  attempt  to  control  occupational  disease  be¬ 
gins  in  the  employment  bureau  of  the  modern  fac¬ 
tory  by  a  thorough  physical  examination.  Indeed  in 
hiring  now-a-days  it  is  a  man’s  body  which  receives 


82 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  first  attention.  “  We  are  not  hunting  perfect 
physical  specimens,”  Dr.  Farnum  the  medical  super¬ 
visor  of  the  Avery  Company  of  Peoria,  Illinois,  says. 
“  What  we  are  trying  to  do  is  to  ascertain  whether 
the  individual  man’s  physical  condition  is  compatible 
with  the  work  he  is  going  to  do.”  Is  the  man  in 
condition  to  resist  the  peculiar  danger  in  the  occupa¬ 
tion?  A  physical  examination  ought  to  show  this. 
Is  the  man  strong  enough  to  do  the  work?  That 
is  a  matter  not  difficult  to  decide  and  its  decision  pre¬ 
vents  many  a  poor  fellow  straining  himself  to  in¬ 
jury  in  too  heavy  tasks. 

The  modern  employment  bureaus  know  enough 
not  to  send  a  girl  whose  eyes  are  poor  to  a  machine 
where  the  operation  requires  the  strongest  and 
steadiest  sight.  It  does  not  put  a  man  with  a  wooden 
leg  to  working  a  treadle  which  requires  the  leg  mus¬ 
cles  of  a  first  baseman.  It  sends  the  girl  to  an 
oculist  and  often  tells  her  to  apply  again  when  her 
trouble  is  corrected  and  not  infrequently  it  finds 
something  the  man  with  a  wooden  leg  can  do. 

While  the  preliminary  examination  prevents  men 
from  taking  work  where  all  the  physical  odds  are 
against  them  it  often  for  the  time  demonstrates  to  a 
man  a  handicap  which  he  has  never  suspected.  If 
it  does  not  give  him  the  work  he  wants  it  gives  him 
valuable  knowledge  about  his  body  which  he  prob¬ 
ably  would  not  have  had  until  too  late.  He  is 
obliged  to  face  his  handicap.  The  weak  point  is 
that  he  probably  does  not  know  how  to  seek  a  cure 
or  if  he  does  he  has  not  the  means.  It  can  hardly 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


83 


be  expected  of  employers  that  they  take  care  of  ap¬ 
plicants,  though  there  are  cases  where  it  is  done. 
The  obligations  here  would  seem  to  rest  on  outside 
social  agencies; 

There  is  no  question  but  that  the  best  interests  of 
the  labour  force  is  served  by  a  refusal  to  accept  those 
who  are  unfit  for  a  particular  task.  The  relation  of 
the  health  of  the  whole  to  that  of  the  work  is  ob¬ 
vious.  There  is  a  close  connection  too  between  dis¬ 
ease  and  accidents. 

“  We  think  it  would  be  reprehensible,”  the  man¬ 
agement  of  the  Commonwealth  Steel  Company  says, 
“  if  we  did  not  know  that  a  man  had  only  one  eye 
and  would  therefore  put  him  where  he  might  be  in 
danger  of  having  his  good  eye  knocked  out.  We 
should  for  his  own  good  and  that  of  his  fellow 
workmen  know  he  is  not  subject  to  ‘  fits  ’  or  con¬ 
ditions  that  might  let  him  fall  into  things  or  off  of 
places.  We  feel  we  should  know  that  men  who 
operate  our  twenty  big  overhead  cranes  are  in  phys¬ 
ical  and  mental  condition  to  properly  handle  big 
loads  over  other  men’s  heads,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  We 
feel,  too,  that  we  have  the  right  and  that  we  owe  it 
to  their  fellow  workmen  to  reject  men  who  have 
certain  objectional  diseases.” 

The  man  who  is  accepted  as  a  good  risk  in  a 
modern  scientific  shop  —  will  find  there,  as  has  al¬ 
ready  been  said,  all  mechanical  precautions  that  are 
known  to  minimise  the  trade  danger.  He  will  find 
the  most  important  of  all  safeguards  whatever  the 
disease  —  good  air  —  regular  temperature,  and 


84 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


proper  sanitation.  If  in  addition  he  receives  an 
education  in  the  precautions  he  ought  to  take,  he  will 
have  as  fair  a  chance  to  escape  the  menace  of  his 
trade  as  industry  knows  how  to  give. 

The  most  important  feature  of  his  education  will 
be  the  annual  physical  examination  which  is  offered 
all  employes  in  a  thoroughly  modern  organisation. 
Some  idea  of  what  is  covered  may  be  obtained  by  a 
look  at  the  card  here  printed  used  by  Dr.  A.  M. 
Harvey  of  the  Crane  Company  of  Chicago.  Dr. 
Harvey  is  one  of  the  pioneers  in  factory  health 
work.  His  system  is  thorough  and  his  supervision 
constant  and  intelligent. 

In  all  factories  where  the  physical  examination  is 
put  into  force  a  few  old  employes  are  almost  in¬ 
variably  found  to  be  suffering  from  serious  troubles 
which  neglected  would  soon  incapacitate  them. 
These  troubles  may  be,  too,  of  such  a  nature  that 
the  men  are  a  menace  to  their  fellows.  There  is  an 
impression  abroad  that  such  discoveries  lead  to  im¬ 
mediate  discharge;  that  is,  that  the  annual  physical 
examination  is  really  an  annual  weeding-out  proc¬ 
ess  —  intended  simply  to  keep  a  vigorous  force  to¬ 
gether.  Undoubtedly  the  aim  is  a  vigorous  force. 
It  should  be,  but  I  have  never  personally  found  an 
employer  dismissing  a  diseased  workman  without 
giving  him  a  chance  for  a  cure  or  a  change.  Again 
and  again  I  have  known  of  cases  where  a  serious 
condition,  quite  unsuspected  by  the  victim  has  been 
discovered  and  by  promptly  dealing  with  it  the 
health  has  been  entirely  restored. 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN  85 


PHYSICAL  EXAMINATION  OF  APPLICANT 

FOR  WORK 

FILE  NUMBER 

Name  . Check  No . 

Address . Street . Flat . Front  or  Rear 

Date  of  Birth  . Weight . Height _ Ft...  In. 

General  Appearance,  development  and  condition  of  nutrition . 


Chest  Measuresments ;  Forced  inspiration  . In. 

Forced  expiration . In.  Girth  . In. 

Is  there  any  peculiarity  in  the  shape,  capacity  or  movements  of 
chest  ?  . 


Lungs;  Respiration  per  minute  . Percussion  . 

Auscultation . 

Heart;  Pulse  rate . Character  of  pulse . 

Auscultation . . 

Inspection  of;  Mouth  . Throat  . 

12345678 
2345678 

/20 


Missing  Teeth  /TUPPer  87654321 
L  Lower  87654321 


Vision  (by  Snelling  Chart)  — Right  Eye 


/20 


Left  Eye  . 

Hearing;  (Note  if  able  to  hear  ordinary  conversation  ... 

Eyes  and  eyelids  . ...Spine  and  Joints 

Head,  face  and  neck . Groin  . 

Hands  and  Arms  . Skin  . 

Feet  and  legs . Blood  Vessels  . . 


Note 
any 
gross 
defects ; 

f  Specific  gravity  . Albumen 

Urme  ^React;on  . Sugar  . 

Remarks ;  . 


Date  and  place  of  examination 


M.D. 


86 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


The  Pfister  and  Vogel  Leather  Company  of  Mil¬ 
waukee,  which  has  been  conducting  annual  physical 
examinations  for  some  three  years  says  they  have 
been  obliged  to  discharge  very  few  men  who  were 
in  their  employ  before  the  installation  of  the  sys¬ 
tem. 

The  physician  is  never  allowed  in  this  company 
to  lay  off  a  man  who  has  been  long  on  the  rolls  on  ac¬ 
count  of  physical  defects.  He  must  make  his  re¬ 
port  to  the  superintendent.  When  they  find  a  man 
can  not  be  restored  to  health,  they  keep  him  at  work 
through  the  winter  months  or  until  such  a  time  as  he  is 
able  to  secure  other  employment,  giving  him  a  notice 
of  some  two  months  so  that  he  can  make  his  arrange¬ 
ments.  Frequently  they  have  been  able  to  remedy 
a  condition  by  an  operation.  In  the  first  two  years 
after  starting  their  medical  work,  they  operated  on 
eighty-four  men,  all  of  whom  are  now  in  the  fac¬ 
tory  at  their  old  wages.  They  insist,  as  do  all  the 
best  companies  where  I  have  examined  the  medical 
department,  that  what  they  are  after  is  sound  bodies, 
and  that  they  consider  it  part  of  their  business  to 
help  the  men  to  a  good  physical  condition  and  show 
them  how  to  keep  so.  The  Crane  Company  support 
a  sanatorium  for  their  “  run-down  ”  or  convalescing 
employes.  At  a  beautiful  and  historic  spot  on  the 
Illinios  River  eighty  miles  from  Chicago,  Buffalo 
Rock,  an  institution  has  been  fitted  up  for  the  care 
and  treatment  of  those  who  need  it.  They  believe 
it  one  of  their  wisest  ventures. 

Particular  care  and  kindness  is  exercised  where 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


87 


tuberculosis  is  discovered.  All  over  the  country 
employers  are  sending  tubercular  employes  to  tent 
colonies  or  hospitals  where  they  can  have  the  best 
of  care.  Often  the  victim  has  had  no  idea  of  his 
condition  and  fights  an  exile.  A  man  who  has  been 
thirty  years  with  the  Avery  Company  of  Peoria,  Illi¬ 
nois,  was  found  on  the  first  examination  they  held  to 
have  tuberculosis  of  the  lungs.  He  was  immediately 
sent  to  the  Ottance  Tent  Colony  and  is  now  back  at 
work. 

The  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company  has 
made  especially  elaborate  arrangements  for  caring 
for  those  among  its  15,000  employes  who  are  tuber¬ 
cular.  The  sanatorium  —  built  on  the  southern 
slope  of  Mount  McGregor,  New  York,  a  stone 
throw  from  the  cottage  where  General  Grant  died 
—  is  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  company’s  many  con¬ 
tributions  to  the  cause  of  national  health.  It  has 
aimed  to  make  a  modern  sanatorium,  one  which 
should  not  only  serve  its  employes  but  should  set 
the  highest  standards  for  such  an  institution  and 
which  should  as  time  went  on  serve  as  a  great  labora¬ 
tory  for  developing  better  methods  for  fighting  the 
plague.  There  has  been  a  question  raised  as  to  the 
legal  right  of  the  company  to  devote  money  to  such 
a  purpose.  It  is  a  question  often  raised  over  this 
kind  of  work  by  corporations  and  stock  companies. 
Before  undertaking  the  work  a  judgment  was  asked 
from  the  Appellate  Division  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  New  York.  The  court  returned  as  a  principle 
the  following: 


88 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


The  duties  of  the  employer  to  the  employe  have  been 
enlarged  in  recent  years,  and  are  not  merely  that  of  the 
purchaser  of  the  employe’s  time  and  service  for  money.  The 
enlightened  spirit  of  the  age,  based  upon  the  experience  of 
the  past,  has  thrown  upon  the  employer  other  duties,  which 
involve  a  proper  regard  for  the  comfort,  health,  safety  and 
well-being  of  the  employe.  ...  It  is  well  within  the  cor¬ 
porate  power  to  assume,  as  it  has  done,  the  care  and  treat¬ 
ment  of  such  of  its  employes  as  are  afflicted  with  tuberculosis. 
And  unless  it  is  shown  to  be  wasteful  of  the  company’s  money 
and  unproductive  of  beneficial  results,  the  practice  may  stand 
as  well  within  the  scope  of  its  business.  The  reasonable 
care  of  its  employes,  according  to  the  enlightened  sentiment 
of  the  age  and  community,  is  a  duty  resting  upon  it,  and  the 
proper  discharge  of  that  duty  is  merely  transacting  the  busi¬ 
ness  of  the  corporation. 

I  doubt  if  more  care  and  truer  sympathy  have 
ever  gone  into  an  undertaking  than  into  this  sana¬ 
torium  —  and  it  is  the  more  impressive  because  the 
company  insists  that  they  regard  it  simply  as  sound 
business.  It  is  another  evidence  of  the  spread  of 
the  discovery  that  the  highest  humanity  is  the  sound¬ 
est  business.  One  achievement  at  Mount  McGregor 
has  been  making  the  patients  happy.  I  never  saw  a 
group  of  afflicted  people  so  full  of  surprised  content¬ 
ment  and  hopefulness  as  the  girls  I  talked  with 
there.  They  were  not  all  to  recover.  Some  were 
too  far  gone  when  they  were  received  but  they  knew 
they  wrere  having  the  best  chance  science  and  devotion 
could  give.  They  looked  out  from  their  chairs  on  a 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN  89 

beautiful  world  and  however  hard  it  had  been  in  the 
past  they  had  found  at  last  its  kindness. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  three  years  operation 
which  the  company  values  most  is  the  fact  that  no 
man  or  woman  who  is  now  sent  to  Mount  McGregor 
fears  the  sentence.  Those  who  have  come  back  re¬ 
stored  bring  a  story  of  such  happiness  that  he  goes 
gladly  and  hopefully. 

It  is  a  satisfaction  to  have  one’s  unofficial  im¬ 
pressions  of  a  practice  as  promising  as  this  of  phys¬ 
ical  examinations  of  employes  confirmed  by  an  of¬ 
ficial  investigation.  One  has  been  made  by  the 
versatile,  enlightened  and  energetic  Industrial  Com¬ 
mission  of  the  State  of  Ohio.  According  to  its  find¬ 
ings,  there  were  only  four  establishments  in  the  State 
conducting  these  examinations  before  1914;  that  is, 
four  outside  of  the  railroad  companies  and  street 
railways,  where,  as  it  is  well  known,  physical  exami¬ 
nations  and  tests  have  been  in  practice  for  a  good 
many  years,  in  the  interest  of  the  public,  however, 
rather  than  in  the  interest  of  the  man.  The  insur¬ 
ance  companies  of  course  have  always  carried  on 
such  examinations,  but  this  was  not,  as  the  com¬ 
mission  points  out,  to  assist  an  unfit  person  becoming 
fit,  but  to  safeguard  the  insuring  concern. 

The  commission  found  that  at  the  time  of  this 
investigation,  (the  report  was  published  in  the  fall 
of  1915),  there  were  some  forty-two  (42)  estab¬ 
lishments  in  Ohio  examining  applicants  for  employ¬ 
ment.  Full  reports  of  the  results  of  the  examina- 


90 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


tion  were  not  to  be  had,  but  in  the  case  of  23,1 18  ap¬ 
plicants  of  which  reports  existed,  it  was  found  1040 
had  been  rejected.  The  reasons  for  these  rejec¬ 
tions  are  interesting.  At  the  head  of  the  list  stands 
impaired  vision;  hernia  comes  next;  then  organic 
diseases  of  the  heart;  tuberculosis  and  the  social 
diseases  did  not  prove  to  be  nearly  as  general  as 
popularly  supposed. 

Possibly  the  most  interesting  observation  of  the 
investigators  was  that  these  rejections  for  disease 
or  poor  physical  condition  were  not  final  in  several 
of  the  establishments.  Men  or  women  found  unfit 
were  frequently  referred  to  a  physician.  In  some 
cases  a  course  of  treatment  was  prescribed  or  an  op¬ 
eration  recommended.  It  was  found  that  often  if 
the  applicant  came  back  in  good  shape  he  was  em¬ 
ployed. 

The  report  states  that  it  found  the  following 
reasons  given  by  employers  for  the  examinations. 
They  tally  very  well  with  my  own  observations: 

To  enable  the  employer  to  select  a  force  physically  fit  for 
the  work. 

To  determine  the  physical  condition  of  workmen  upon 
entering  employment  so  that  unjust  claims  for  injuries  may 
be  avoided. 

To  adjust  the  employe  to  the  work  for  which  he  is 
physically  best  suited. 

To  maintain  the  health  of  employes  by  preventing  the 
introduction  of  communicable  diseases,  by  detecting  physical 
diseases  and  defects  in  their  incipiency,  by  advising  and  edu¬ 
cating  the  industrial  workers  to  care  for  their  physical  well- 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


9i 


being,  and  to  reduce  the  hazard  to  the  individual  employe 
and  his  fellow  employes  arising  from  physical  defects. 


The  point  of  danger  which  the  Ohio  Commission 
finds  in  the  physical  examination'  ‘>i£  that  without 
proper  supervision  many  establishments,  mgy  put  too 
high  a  standard  on  the  physical  fitness  of  applicants, 


eliminating  would-be  workers. unfairly.  uJt  suggests 
that  the  State  exercise  a  supervision  Pver  ^the  exami- 

-J  ■>  <*  I  9  c  )  J  >  ) 

nations.  The  chief  bar  to  this  abuse  in  normal  times 
is  that  there  is  a  greater  demand  in  well  established 
industries  than  there  is  supply. 

It  is  not  the  occupational  disease  nor  is  it  tuber¬ 
culosis  or  typhoid  or  troubles  calling  for  operations, 
which  are  the  most  serious  problems  in  industrial 
life.  It  is  the  minor  degenerative  diseases  —  the 
impaired  digestion,  the  thin  blood,  the  poorly  func¬ 
tioning  kidney,  the  nervous  run-down  condition  — 
ills  which  the  victim  does  not  realise  but  which 
if  not  checked  will  sap  his  strength,  weaken  his  re¬ 
sistance  to  occupational  disease  and  to  epidemics  and 
often  hurry  on  some  tendency  of  which  he  knows 
nothing.  How  widespread  impaired  condition  is 
has  been  brought  out  graphically  by  the  recent  in¬ 
vestigation  of  our  great  life  insurance  companies  and 
that  unique  and  promising  young  organisation  the 
Life  Extension  Institute. 

Below  is  a  diagram  presented  before  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Society  for  the  Development  of  Science  by  Dr. 
Louis  I.  Dublin.  It  shows  that  degenerate  diseases 
have  increased  from  something  like  21  per  cent,  in 


3».r 


1880  1890  '  1900  1910 


Increase  of  Degenerative  Disease  in  United  States  in 

30  Years. 


24.9 


1890  1900  ‘(912 


Decrease  of  Typhoid  Fever 
in  22  Years. 


92 


Decrease  of  Tuberculosis  of 
Luncs  in  22  Years. 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


93 


1880  to  over  38  per  cent,  in  1910.  At  the  same 
time  it  shows  that  in  twenty-two  years  we  have  re¬ 
duced  typhoid  fever  from  4.6  per  cent,  to  1.6  per 
cent.,  and  tuberculosis  from  24.5  per  cent,  to  12.5 
per  cent. 

In  its  investigation  of  industrial  and  commercial 
workers  the  Life  Extension  Institute  has  found  only 
.46  of  the  former  and  .81  per  cent,  of  the  latter 
really  sound.  It  declares  that  nearly  97  per  cent, 
of  those  examined  need  advice  about  how  to  live. 
Nearly  this  full  number  were  not  aware  that  they 
were  in  any  way  impaired,  and  yet  such  was  the 
impairment  that  over  67  per  cent,  of  the  former 
and  nearly  72  per  cent,  of  the  latter  needed  treat¬ 
ment  of  some  kind.  There  were  many  ailments 
which  the  Institution  classified  as  “  minor  to  mod¬ 
erate,”  but  the  character  of  them  was  such  that  they 
must  inevitably  become  worse. 

The  institution  found  numbers  of  those  examined 
afflicted  with  some  kind  of  physical  defect  which 
could  be  corrected  often  without  the  help  of  a  phy¬ 
sician,  but  neglected  because  unrealised. 

It  is  these  degenerative  diseases  which  are  mainly 
responsible  for  the  huge  sick  list  in  American  in¬ 
dustry.  In  1915  the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance 
Company,  co-operated  with  the  Federal  Bureau  of 
Labour  in  a  study  of  unemployment.  A  million 
wage  earners  were  covered.  It  was  found  that  1.2 
per  cent,  of  these  people  were  unemployed  because 
of  illness. 

.In  Rochester,  New  York,  a  special  investigation 


94 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


was  made  by  the  Metropolitan  in  September,  1915. 
It  covered  14  per  cent,  of  the  population.  On  the 
basis  of  this  survey  about  2^4  per  cent,  of  the  work¬ 
ing  people  of  the  town  are  continually  unemployed 
because  of  illness. 

Dr.  Frankel  and  Dr.  Dublin,  wrho  made  this  re¬ 
port,  and  who  certainly  are  as  well  qualified  to 
speak  as  any  one  in  the  country,  estimate  that  the 
working  men  of  Rochester  lose  something  over  one 
and  a  quarter  million  dollars  in  money  a  year  through 
illness. 

Apply  the  percentage  of  sickness  found  in  the  first 
investigation  referred  to  above,  1.2  per  cent.,  to  the 
working  world  of  the  United  States  as  numbered 
by  the  census  of  1910.  In  all  occupations  there  were 
then  engaged  38,167,336  persons,  8,075,772  of 
them  being  women.  If  1.2  per  cent,  of  these  are 
continuously  ill  we  have  an  annual  loss  of  137,- 
402,400  days  (counting  300  days  to  a  year).  Sup¬ 
pose  the  average  wage  of  the  working  world  is  but 
$1.50  and  we  have  a  money  loss  of  over  two  hun¬ 
dred  million  dollars  —  and  a  loss  falling  in  the  main 
upon  those  least  able  to  bear  it.  But  this  money  loss 
is  small  beside  the  loss  which  comes  from  discourage¬ 
ment,  from  debt  and  from  the  general  disorganisa¬ 
tion  that  illness  causes,  particularly  in  families  who 
depend  upon  a  daily  wage  for  support. 

The  chief  cause  of  all  this  misery  is  neglect  of 
personal  hygiene  and  the  chief  reason  of  the  neglect 
is  ignorance.  The  annual  physical  examination  is 


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A  Typical  Record  from  Health  Files  of  the  Clothcraft  Shop  of 

Cleveland,  Ohio. 


95 


96 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  best  possible  method  of  discovering  and  dispell¬ 
ing  the  ignorance. 

The  blank  record  from  the  Crane  Company  pub¬ 
lished  on  page  85,  gives  an  idea  of  the  ground  that 
physical  examinations  usually  cover.  The  record 
on  page  95  from  the  files  of  the  Clothcraft  Shop  of 
Cleveland  shows  how  practically  a  good  medical  de¬ 
partment  follows  up  an  examination.  The  card  not 
only  presents  the  state  of  things  in  the  case  of  Jane 
Doe  when  she  was  first  examined,  but  it  shows  what 
has  been  done  for  her.  We  see  that  she  had  at  the 
start  no  organic  disease,  but  that  her  tonsils  were  en¬ 
larged  and  five  teeth  needed  attention.  She  suf¬ 
fered  from  headaches  and  sore  throat,  and  the  card 
shows  that  the  cause  of  each  was  sought.  In  one 
case  she  had  not  been  getting  enough  sleep.  At  an¬ 
other  time  it  was  anaemia  that  was  behind  her  ail¬ 
ments  and  she  was  given  a  tonic  and  the  nurse  was 
directed  to  follow  her  up  constantly  about  fresh  air 
and  the  need  of  more  sleep.  She  was  persuaded  to 
have  an  operation  for  her  tonsils,  which  is  reported 
successful.  This  seems  to  be  doing  a  good  deal  for 
Jane,  but  it  is  only  the  beginning.  So  long  as  she 
is  with  the  Clothcraft  Shop,  every  time  she  com¬ 
plains,  every  time  her  work  begins  to  fall  off  in 
quantity  or  quality,  every  time  she  doesn’t  appear  at 
her  machine,  the  reason  will  be  sought  and  the 
remedy  applied. 

In  this  particular  shop,  the  Medical  Department 
is  maintained  as  an  arm  of  the  Employment  and 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


97 


Service  Department.  There  is  a  graduate  nurse  in 
charge  of  the  work,  there  is  a  dispensary,  waiting 
room  and  rest-room,  and  a  consultation  room  for 
the  factory  physicians.  And  there  is  a  Medical 
staff,  consisting  of  a  physician,  an  oculist  and  a  den¬ 
tist.  All  of  this  is  paid  for  by  the  company.  Out¬ 
side  service  from  the  factory  physician  is  furnished 
to  employes  and  their  families  at  special  rate. 

There  is  no  phase  of  the  Clothcraft  management 
from  which  it  is  believed  a  more  direct  return  in  dol¬ 
lars  and  cents  comes  than  from  this  medical  service. 

It  will  be  noticed  in  the  above  record  that  Jane 
consented  in  August  of  1914  when  it  was  found  that 
she  was  anaemic  to  “  go  to  summer  camp.”  The 
Clothcraft  shop  is  one  of  many  in  the  country  where 
the  value  of  the  annual  vacation  in  keeping  up  effi¬ 
ciency  has  been  amply  demonstrated.  Employers 
have  come  to  the  practice  slowly.  Men  and  women 
who  work  with  their  hands  have  never  been  gener¬ 
ally  considered  fit  subjects  for  leisure.  Too  often 
their  only  vacation  is  forced  upon  them  by  unemploy¬ 
ment.  Instead  of  being  a  time  of  pleasure,  it  is  one 
of  deprivation  and  anxiety.  This  is  one  of  the  in¬ 
equalities  of  the  working  world  which  distressed 
good  Sam  Jones  of  Toledo  — “  Golden  Rule  ”  Jones 
—  most  sorely. 

“  It  really  seems  a  long  way  ahead,”  he  wrote  de¬ 
spondently  once,  “  to  the  time  when  carpenters, 
blacksmiths,  sewerdiggers,  street-pavers,  brick¬ 
layers,  plasterers,  streetcar  men,  drivers,  railway  men 
of  all  sorts,  from  the  trackmen  down  to  the  superin- 


98 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


tendent,  lumbermen,  stone-men,  farmers,  kitchen- 
girls,  laundry-workers,  factory  girls,  shop-girls, 
clerks,  and  indeed  all  sorts  of  workers  will  have 
work  and  due  wages  with  a  vacation  or  rest  time  as 
certain  for  all  as  it  now  is  for  the  teachers,  the 
preachers  and  the  majority  of  the  professional 
classes. 

“  I  am  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  to-day  vaca¬ 
tions,  trips  to  Europe  and  the  mountains  and  the  sea¬ 
shore  are  more  generally  the  privileges  of  those  who 
do  not  work  at  all,  than  of  the  workers  of  any 
sort.” 

Sam  Jones  never  neglected  an  opportunity  to  hit 
at  the  social  injustices  in  his  own  little  world.  In 
1899  he  inaugurated  in  the  Acme  Sucker  Rod  Com¬ 
pany  an  annual  week’s  vacation  on  full  pay  for  all 
those  who  had  been  six  months  with  the  concern. 
His  political  enemies  sneered  at  his  vacations.  A 
hostile  newspaper  declared  that  there  were  few  large 
concerns  in  the  country  that  did  not  give  employes 
a  week’s  vacation  with  pay.  The  editor  would  have 
been  hard  put  to  it  to  name  a  dozen  where  the  men 
outside  of  the  office  received  even  a  day  with  pay. 
Vacations  come  in  many  large  concerns  in  the  nat¬ 
ural  order  of  business.  They  are  an  incident  of  the 
annual  shut-down  for  repairs  and  painting  but  the 
men  as  a  rule  pay  for  them.  Sam  Jones  was  ahead 
of  his  world  in  this  practice  as  well  as  in  some  others. 
He  might  have  retaliated  with  incidents  of  men 
dropped  entirely  because  they  merely  asked  for  va¬ 
cations!  There  are  still  too  many  old-fashioned 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


99 


employers  who  don’t  want  a  man  around  who  thinks 
that  a  week  or  two  off  in  the  summer  is  a  good  thing! 

One  of  the  most  successful  and  sound  develop¬ 
ments  in  the  vacation  idea  of  which  I  know  is  that 
in  the  Pilgrim  Steam  Laundry  of  Brooklyn,  New 
York.  It  was  fifteen  years  ago  that  the  first  experi¬ 
ment  in  vacations  was  made  by  the  firm.  At  that 
time,  even  more  than  to-day,  people  were  insistent 
upon  having  their  soiled  linen  collected  on  Monday 
and  delivered  not  later  than  Saturday  noon,  which 
gave  a  very  short  week.  Fewer  people  left  their 
city  homes  for  the  summer  months  too,  making  the 
work  heavier  in  proportion  in  the  summer.  The 
giving  of  vacations,  at  the  proper  vacation  periods, 
was  consequently  a  very  difficult  matter. 

However,  the  feeling  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  build  up  a  stable  and  permanent  organisation 
without  such  a  period  for  rest,  relaxation  and  pleas¬ 
ure,  caused  the  management  to  attempt  a  vacation 
programme.  For  three  years  the  plan  was  to  col¬ 
lect  the  names  of  those  who  wished  to  take  a  week 
off  at  their  own  expense,  and  to  supply  help  for 
those  weeks. 

Twelve  years  ago  the-  plan  developed  a  little  far¬ 
ther  and  one  week’s  vacation  was  allowed  with  pay 
to  those  who  had  been  in  the  employ  of  the  com¬ 
pany  for  two  years  or  more.  Those  who  had  been 
in  the  plant  for  one  year  and  less  than  two  were  still 
allowed  one  week’s  leave  of  absence  without  pay  in 
every  case  where  arrangements  could  be  made. 

From  these  beginnings  the  vacation  programme 


100 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


was  gradually  extended  as  the  growth  and  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  business  justified  it,  until  at  its  present 
proportion :  — 

Superintendents  receive  four  weeks’  vacation  with 
four  weeks’  pay. 

Heads  of  departments  receive  twTo  weeks’  vacation 
with  two  weeks’  pay. 

Employes  of  one  year  receive  one  week  vacation 
with  one  week’s  pay. 

Employes  of  from  two  or  five  years  have  their 
choice  of  one  week's  vacation  with  1J/2  weeks’  pay, 
or  two  weeks’  vacation  with  one  week’s  pay. 

Employes  of  five  or  more  years  have  their  choice 
of  one  week’s  vacation  with  i  y2  week’s  pay  or  2 
weeks’  vacation  with  weeks’  pay. 

Generous  as  this  programme  is  the  firm  is  not  con¬ 
tent.  They  believe  that  in  the  interest  of  efficiency 
they  should  enlarge  it  and  this  undoubtedly  will  be 
done  as  the  business  justifies  it. 

Let  no  one  think  that  an  employer’s  work  is  done 
when  he  arranges  for  vacation  for  his  force.  Fre¬ 
quently  it  is  only  begun.  It  is  a  pathetic  fact  that 
to  large  numbers  of  people  particularly  girls  and 
women  the  idea  of  a  vacation  is  bewildering  rather 
than  exciting.  Take  girls  of  foreign  parentage, 
even  those  born  in  this  country,  and  it  is  not  an  in¬ 
frequent  thing  for  them  to  say  when  a  vacation  away 
from  home  is  suggested,  “  I  never  heard  of  such  a 
thing,”  or  “  What  can  I  do,”  “  I  never  have  been  out 
of  New  York,”  “or  Rochester,”  or  whatever  it  may 
be,  “  in  my  life  that  is  the  idea  of  a  vacation  falls 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


101 


on  the  stoniest  of  ground.  There  is  neither  interest 
nor  anticipation  awakened.  It  is. a  gift  of  which 
they  do  not  know  the  use.  They  do  not  want  it  be¬ 
cause  they  never  have  learned  the  meaning  of  it. 
An  employer  who  really  knows  his  people  and  has 
come  to  this  idea  of  vacation  by  the  only  sound  proc¬ 
ess,  that  is  the  recognition  that  change  and  recrea¬ 
tion  are  absolutely  essential  to  a  stable  interest  in 
work,  knows  that  he  has  on  his  hands  a  delicate 
educational  task,  one  the  more  complicated  because 
he  generally  does  not  know  where  to  advise  them  to 

g°- 

It  was  a  sympathetic  sense  of  the  difficulty  great 
numbers  of  girls  in  New  York  City  must  have  in 
placing  themselves  for  their  summer  holiday  and  a 
fear  that  this  difficulty  might  retard  the  growth  of 
the  vacation  idea  that  four  years  ago  led  the  women 
in  the  Metropolitan  section  of  the  National  Civic 
Federation  to  form  a  committee  to  collect  and  dis¬ 
tribute  information. 

An  investigation  committee  was  sent  out  to  look 
over  boarding-houses  and  summer  hotels  within  a 
reasonable  radius  of  the  town.  All  information  col¬ 
lected  was  passed  on  to  the  girls  in  shops  and  fac¬ 
tories.  But  immediately  a  second  need  was  dis¬ 
covered.  Girls  who  seized  the  information  eagerly 
and  planned  to  use  it  often  found  themselves,  when 
it  came  to  vacation  time  without  enough  money  to 
leave  town  —  try  saving  twenty-five  dollars  a  year 
on  an  income  of  ten  dollars  a  week  in  New  York 
City  and  see  for  yourself  if  it  is  easy  —  and  so  a 


102 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


second  undertaking  grew  up :  that  was  a  Vacation 
Savings  Bank,  an  arrangement  by  wThich  the  girls  in 
the  shops  and  factories  might  deposit  any  sum  from 
five  cents  up  that  they  could  spare  from  their  weekly 
pay  envelopes.  This  fund  which  was  started  in 
November,  1911,  with  forty-three  girls  has  enrolled 
in  four  years  some  21,000  and  had  deposits  of  about 
$200,000.  Fully  half  of  these  depositors  have  used 
their  savings  for  vacations. 

The  co-operation  of  employes  has  been  essential 
in  carrying  out  the  work.  Scores  of  firms  in  New 
York  City  allow  girls  in  their  employ  to  act  as  agents 
for  the  Vacation  Committee  in  their  shops  or  fac¬ 
tories  on  company  time  and  there  is  a  general  con¬ 
sent  that  the  enterprise  has  worked  for  health  and 
stability. 

The  pre-eminent  service  of  the  factory  medical  de¬ 
partment  is  the  education  it  gives  in  the  care  of  the 
health.  It  is  not  a  simple  undertaking.  In  many 
bodies  of  labour,  especially  where  it  is  organised, 
there  is  suspicion  to  be  overcome.  They  have  been 
told  that  it  is  in  the  interest  of  the  counting  room 
rather  than  in  their  interest  and  many  of  them  have 
yet  to  understand  that  the  two  are  inseparable. 
Nevertheless  I  have  never  known  of  a  factory  where 
the  work  had  been  undertaken  intelligently,  that  the 
people  were  not  its  staunch  defenders.  They  come, 
sooner  or  later,  to  look  upon  it  as  one  of  their  rights 
and  to  demand  its  full  service.  In  one  factory  where 
the  employes  have  had  the  examination  for  some 
four  years,  the  only  complaint  has  come  to  be  that 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


103 


some  examiners  are  not  as  thorough  as  others!  In 
this  particular  case,  the  examination  is  voluntary. 
Perhaps  15  per  cent,  refused  to  take  it  the  first  year; 
everybody  takes  it  now,  and  as  I  said,  insists  upon 
it  being  thorough. 

As  for  appreciation  and  co-operation  when  confi¬ 
dence  in  the  service  is  established  it  is  hearty  and 
fine.  One  company  tells  of  a  skilled  workman  who 
had  left  their  plant  for  higher  wages  returning  in  a 
few  weeks.  “  My  wife  and  I  think,”  he  explained, 
“  that  the  care  and  attention  I  get  here  is  worth 
more  than  the  difference  in  wages,  so  I  am  back 
to  the  old  job.”  Another  workman  in  this  factory 
who  had  been  badly  injured  and  carefully  nursed 
was  given  his  compensation  check.  “  What  kind 
of  a  fellow  do  you  think  I  am,  anyway?  ”  he  said 
indignantly.  “  Haven’t  you  been  looking  after  me 
for  over  a  year  when  anything  was  the  matter  with 
me?  Not  me !  ” 

The  real  difficulty  is  that  common  to  all  health 
work.  Men  and  women  are  indifferent  to  hygiene, 
to  personal  habits  until  too  late.  “  It  never  bothers 
me,”  “  I  feel  all  right,”  is  the  opposition  in  the 
factory  medical  department  as  it  is  everywhere,  to 
attempts  to  persuade  a  man  with  certain  diseases 
that  he  is  in  a  dangerous  condition.  The  Kodak 
Company  tells  of  examining  an  employe  with  a  blood 
pressure  of  250,  who  when  warned,  declared  he 
had  never  felt  better  in  his  life.  In  three  months 
he  was  dead. 

As  for  arousing  employes  to  the  need  of  fresh 


104 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


air,  of  regular  meals,  of  correct  posture  —  it  can 
only  be  done  by  patient,  line-upon-line  training.  As 
fine  a  campaign  of  education  as  I  ever  saw  waged 
was  that  of  the  physician  of  a  Cincinnati  shop  of 
some  6,000  men  —  almost  none  of  whom  drank 
water  freely  and  most  of  whom  suffered  the  usual  re¬ 
sults.  By  exhortation,  explanation  and  entreaty 
given  in  public  and  private  he  was  gradually  edu¬ 
cating  them  to  drink  water  freely.  Six  thousand 
men  converted  to  the  flushing  system  is  a  real  contri¬ 
bution  to  national  health. 

The  health  bulletins  and  pamphlets  are  a  prac¬ 
tical  feature  of  education  in  many  plants.  The 
Worcester,  Massachusetts,  Corset  Company  has  for 
years  issued  booklets  of  information  and  advice 
suited  particularly  to  the  class  and  the  habits  of  the 
hundreds  of  girls  it  employs.  The  care  of  the  body, 
the  importance  of  a  healthy  digestion,  scores  of 
topics  are  treated  in  so  clear  and  personal  a  fashion 
that  in  the  end  they  arrest  the  attention  of  the  most 
careless.  Health  has  become  one  of  the  ambitions 
of  the  girls  in  this  factory  through  the  continued  ef¬ 
forts  of  the  management. 

Often  the  pay  envelope  is  made  the  carrier  for 
health  teaching.  Each  week  there  is  printed  on  its 
face  some  bit  of  advice  so  put  as  to  interest  and 
stick.  The  Beech  Nut  factory  at  Canajoharie,  New 
York,  has  been  particularly  happy  in  the  maxims  it 
devises  for  its  pay  envelopes. 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


105 


TO  LIVE  WELL  AND 


DIE  WITHOUT  FEAR 


Breathe  deeply. 

Eat  temperately. 

Drink  (water)  copiously. 


Bathe  frequently. 
Chew  thoroughly. 
Clean  teeth  carefully. 


HEALTH 


Laugh  heartily. 
Work  planfully. 
Serve  willingly. 
Play  some. 


Speak  kindly. 
Read  much. 
Think  more. 


Exercise  daily. 


Sleep  regularly. 


DARE  TO  BE  YOURSELF  — 
Cheerful,  Conscientious,  Brave. 

DISEASE  IS  ALWAYS  AT  YOUR 
DOOR  AWAITING  AN  INVITATION 


“CLEAN  UP” 

YOUR  SURROUNDINGS 
Special  for  1  week,  April  26-May  1 


It  may  be  YOUR  DESK. 

It  may  be  IN  YOUR  HOME. 
It  may  be  YOUR  BACK  YARD. 


Whatever  it  may  be 
“CLEAN  UP” 


io6 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Invariably  such  lively  phrases  are  repeated  and 
quoted  and  more  or  less  heeded. 

Good  as  many  of  the  health  bulletins  are,  none  of 
them  that  I  have  seen  equal  the  series  prepared  by 
the  Life  Extension  Institute.  This  original  organ¬ 
isation  aims  to  be  a  self-supporting  philanthropy. 
It  fights  degenerative  diseases  and  although  it  is  but 
three  years  old  it  has  already  increased  our  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  serious  inroads  that  they  are  making  in 
the  country’s  health  and  has  aroused  thousands  of 
patients  to  the  need  of  better  habits.  The  Life  Ex¬ 
tension  Institute  offers  its  services  to  individuals  cr 
groups.  It  gives  one  of  the  most  thorough  physical 
examinations  that  I  personally  have  experienced.  A 
full  report  is  then  made  and  followed  by  a  personal 
interview  with  a  diagnostician.  If  a  difficulty  calling 
for  a  physician’s  care  or  for  special  treatment  or 
operation  is  discovered,  the  patient  is  so  informed. 
For  diseases  which  are  the  result  of  improper  liv¬ 
ing,  a  proper  regime  is  prescribed.  This  prelim¬ 
inary  work  is  followed  by  a  series  of  monthly  keep¬ 
well  leaflets,  of  the  most  practical  and  scientific  char¬ 
acter.  They  aim  not  only  to  advise  but  to  inform 
of  whatever  is  new  in  the  care  of  the  health  that 
the  Institute  deems  wise  to  pass  along.  The  titles 
of  these  leaflets  show  their  range  and  relevancy  — 
“  Posture,”  “  The  Hygiene  of  Middle  Life,”  “  Un¬ 
derweight,”  “Overweight”  (the  real  meaning  of 
each  and  its  relation  to  active  life)  “  Setting-up  Ex¬ 
ercises,”  “  Hygiene  of  the  Mouth  ”  etc.,  really 
stimulating  and  informing  tracts. 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


107 


A  factory  which  has  not  established  a  medical 
department  could  do  no  better  than  ask  in  the  Life 
Extension  Institute  to  make  a  health  survey  of  its 
employes.  Ford’s  has  already  done  this  although 
they  have  a  large  medical  organisation.  Even  if  it 
were  desired  to  install  a  medical  department  in  order 
to  have  doctor  and  nurse  in  daily  contact  with  the 
force  which  is  of  course,  the  ideal  arrangement,  the 
standards  and  methods  of  the  Life  Extension  Insti¬ 
tute  are  such  that  it  would  be  possible  to  start  right 
at  the  beginning  —  which  is  difficult.  The  factory 
medical  department  being  a  pioneer  movement  has 
had  to  work  out  its  methods  as  it  went  along.  The 
Life  Extension  Institute  could  put  such  a  department 
firmly  on  its  feet  at  the  start. 

The  true  aim  of  the  industrial  medical  depart¬ 
ment  of  a  factory  or  shop  is  to  put  employes  into  con¬ 
dition  and  keep  them  there:  Restoration  and  Pre¬ 
vention.  The  most  serious  abuse,  indeed  the  only 
serious  abuse,  of  the  system  which  I  have  ever  known 
was  using  the  department  merely  for  temporary  re¬ 
lief.  This  happens  oftenest  where  large  groups  of 
girls  are  employed.  The  usefulness  of  the  nurse 
and  the  first-aid  room  are  measured  not  by  the  pre¬ 
vention  of  headaches,  nausea  and  fainting  spells  but 
by  the  promptness  with  which  an  indisposed  girl  is 
restored  to  her  task.  The  means  employed  is  more 
often  than  not  a  stimulant  or  opiate  —  something 
that  acts  quickly.  This  is  a  grave  abuse  of  the  sys¬ 
tem.  It  not  only  defeats  the  object  of  scientific 
management  which  is  to  bring  about  a  condition  of 


io8 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


sustained  well-being  among  the  workers  but  it  en¬ 
courages  one  of  the  most  pernicious  habits  of  work¬ 
ing  women  —  dependence  on  drugs.  Thousands  of 
them  take  these  so-called  medicines  as  regularly  as 
men  take  drinks.  One  has  only  to  examine  the  col¬ 
umns  of  the  newspapers,  particularly  those  in  for¬ 
eign  tongues,  to  see  the  extent  of  the  appeal.  In 
many  of  these  journals  I  have  found  fully  half  of 
the  advertising  space  devoted  to  cure-alls.  Only  the 
phonograph  disputes  with  them  for  attention.  The 
mere  look  of  the  pills  and  nostrums  they  send  is 
enough  to  condemn  them.  If  their  use  is  continued 
they  are  as  certain  as  liquor  to  injure  the  stomach 
and  nerves. 

One  of  the  real  services  of  the  medical  depart¬ 
ment  of  a  factory  should  be  fighting  these  remedies 
just  as  it  should  be  fighting  alcohol.  When  instead 
of  rendering  this  service  it  actually  encourages,  even 
teaches  their  use,  as  it  certainly  does  when  its  aim  is 
returning  the  employe  at  once  to  his  task,  it  is  a 
menace  instead  of  a  help  to  health.  It  is,  of  course, 
proof  that  the  employer  has  not  caught  the  idea  be¬ 
hind  the  factory  health  movement,  that  he  is  still 
concerned  only  with  the  day  —  not  at  all  with  the 
future. 

The  returns  of  all  this  work  to  the  employer  are 
not  speculative.  They  can  be  measured  in  days 
saved,  in  product  increased;  and  many  factories 
have  made  such  estimates.  Take  the  work  of  the 
Tennessee  Coal,  Iron  and  Railroad  Company  in  and 
around  Birmingham. 


HEALTH  FOR  EVERYMAN 


109 


The  Tennessee  company  employs  some  18,000 
men,  who  with  their  families  represent  a  population 
of  about  50,000.  About  53  per  cent,  of  the  em¬ 
ployes  are  negroes.  Although  the  mines  and  plants 
of  the  company  are  distributed  over  a  wide  terri¬ 
tory,  by  far  the  greater  number  are  comprehended 
within  an  area  having  a  15-mile  radius  from  Bir¬ 
mingham. 

The  industrial  betterment  work  as  now  organised 
was  started  some  three  years  ago  by  Dr.  Lloyd  No¬ 
land,  who  had  had  several  years’  experience  in  similar 
work  on  the  Panama  Canal.  At  the  outset  it  was 
believed  that  general  sanitation  and  preventive 
medical  care  not  only  constituted  a  moral  responsi¬ 
bility,  but  gave  results  that  paid;  that  is,  it  was 
cheaper  to  prevent  disease  than  to  cure  it.  The 
soundness  of  this  viewpoint  has  already  been  demon¬ 
strated.  The  average  earnings  of  the  employes 
have  increased  in  a  higher  percentage  than  their 
rates  of  wages.  The  average  number  of  working 
days  per  month  has  increased  from  16  to  22. 

This  is  but  one  of  many  similar  records. 


CHAPTER  V 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 

Two  formidable  campaigns  against  drink  are  go¬ 
ing  on  in  this  country:  one  vociferous  and  political; 
the  other  quiet  and  industrial.  One  aims  to  legis¬ 
late  both  the  man  that  makes  the  drink  and  the  man 
that  sells  it  out  of  business.  The  other  concerns  it¬ 
self  with  the  man  that  does  the  drinking.  It  aims 
to  bring  him  to  temperance  by  any  method  that  will 
work.  The  slogan  of  the  first  is  “  down  with  the 
saloon  of  the  second  “  sober  first.” 

This  second  campaign  is  in  the  hands  of  those 
men  who  are  attempting  to  re-organise  that  portion 
of  the  working  world  which  they  control  so  that 
every  man  in  it  will  have  the  chance  to  develop  all 
there  is  in  him.  This  effort  —  which  is  the  very  es¬ 
sence  of  the  new  scientific  spirit  in  industrial  life  — 
is  hindered  at  every  point  by  habits.  One  of  the 
deepest  rooted  on  labour’s  side  is  drink.  It  is  as 
inimical  to  a  complete  realisation  of  the  new  aspira¬ 
tions  as  the  fixed  idea  of  the  stiff-necked  employer 
that  what  he  has  never  done  nor  seen  done  can’t  be 
done.  It  is  as  inimical  and  even  more  difficult  to 
conquer,  for  the  employer  eventually  must  yield  his 
w'ill  or  his  place.  The  economic  advantages  of  his 

competitor  who  accepts  the  new  ideas  will  take  care 

no 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


111 


of  that.  But  the  economic  advantages  of  sobriety 
have  never  been  doubtful.  Nobody  knows  them  so 
well  as  the  workingman  and  his  family.  If  he  is 
to  break  with  drink  other  appeals  must  be  made. 

It  is  for  the  employer  to  find  these  appeals.  He 
must  do  it.  Drink  interferes  with  every  item  in  the 
programme  on  which  he  has  set  his  heart.  A  drink¬ 
ing  man  makes  stability  out  of  the  question.  He  is 
a  barrier  to  efficiency.  He  is  an  enemy  to  safety. 
Drink  must  go. 

It  is  the  Safety  First  movement  which  has  done 
most  to  fix  the  attention  of  the  industrial  world  on 
the  relations  of  drink  to  its  new  aspirations.  Two 
years  ago  I  attended  the  annual  congress  of  the  Na¬ 
tional  Safety  Council.  There  were  some  300  Safety 
experts  and  managers  present  representing  our 
leading  mining,  manufacturing  and  transportation 
concerns.  There  was  scarcely  a  session  held  in  the 
three  days  the  council  sat  that  the  relation  of  liquor 
to  safety  did  not  come  up.  Again  and  again  there 
was  vigorous  warning  from  experienced  experts  that 
safety  was  out  of  the  question  as  long  as  men  used 
liquor.  It  was  not  because  they  had  as  a  rule,  I 
judged,  any  objection  to  liquor  per  se  —  many  of 
them  frankly  said  they  liked  their  beer  or  wine  — 
but  when  it  came  to  liquor  drinking  by  workingmen 
they  attacked  it  as  violently  as  they  did  uncovered 
wheels  and  gears  and  belts. 

“  Alcoholism  as  an  abstract  proposition  does  not 
interest  me,”  the  secretary  of  the  New  York  Work¬ 
men’s  Compensation  Bureau  told  the  congress, 


1 12 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


“  but  it  has  been  my  painful  duty  to  investigate 
many  accidents  where  I  have  had  positive  proof  that 
the  mishaps  would  never  have  occurred  had  it  not 
been  for  the  liquor  curse.  I  don’t  believe  we  shall 
get  worth-while  results  (in  safety)  unless  we  place 
our  mark  of  disapproval  on  the  liquor  question  im¬ 
mediately.” 

The  really  significant  and  helpful  feature  of  the 
discussion  was  the  multitude  of  indications  it  brought 
out  that  managers  wrere  beginning  to  apply  to  this 
problem  the  same  methods  they  use  in  safety  work. 
When  an  accident  happens  now-a-days  in  a  properly 
organised  factory  or  mill  nobody  lays  it  to  the  Lord. 
Nobody  repeats  that  “  accidents  will  happen.” 
Everybody  seeks  the  cause  and  there  is  no  rest  until 
it  is  found  and  removed.  The  new  attack  in  drink 
follows  this  principle.  It  asks  why  do  men  drink? 

The  old  answer  of  the  moralist,  the  thrifty  and 
the  hard-headed  was  likely  to  be  either  because  he  is 
an  unregenerate  sinner  and  needs  conversion  or  be¬ 
cause  the  liquor  is  where  he  can  see  it.  The  old  at¬ 
tack  on  liquor  followed  these  ideas.  Men  were 
exhorted  to  let  it  alone  —  stirred  to  their  depths  un¬ 
til  they  “  signed  the  pledge  ”  or  the  saloon  and  the 
beer  wagon  were  cast  out  of  the  community. 

Neither  exhortation  or  prohibition  satisfy  the 
modern  scientific  manager.  Men  must  be  sober  for 
other  reasons  than  emotional  stir  or  the  difficulty  of 
getting  liquor,  if  temperance  is  finally  to  prevail  in 
industry.  IVhy  do  they  drink?  In  this  search  for 
causes  the  inquirer  is  using  a  great  deal  of  common 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


113 


sense  and  practical  home-made  physiology  and  psy¬ 
chology —  knowledge  of  the  body -and  the  heart, 
that  he  has  acquired  in  his  own  struggle  for 
decency  and  control.  It  is  remarkable  how  many 
shrewd,  quiet  men  you  find  who  tell  you  that  they  are 
almost  persuaded  that  if  all  was  right  with  the  body 
and  mind  the  man  would  not  want  drink  in  possibly 
a  majority  of  cases.  He  wants  it  because  something 
is  wrong.  It  may  be  because  his  body  is  so  depleted 
at  the  end  of  the  day  that  it  runs  for  its  grog  that 
it  may  get  a  few  brief  moments  of  glow  and  strength 
and  well-being. 

This  is  the  workingman’s  own  plea :  “  I  take  it 

because  I  am  all  in.”  It  is  understandable.  The 
first  experience  in  exhaustion,  in  failing  nerve  and 
hopelessness  is  terrifying  to  one  who  has  had  strength 
and  health.  He  grasps  at  anything  that  will 
give  him  back  even  for  an  hour  his  sense  of  well¬ 
being  and  confidence.  Collapsed  energy  is  as  real 
an  ill  as  a  broken  leg  and  more  to  be  feared  because 
less  understood.  Industry  is  trying  to  understand 
why  it  comes  so  early  to  so  many,  and  many  men  are 
frankly  admitting  that  often  it  is  because  of  long 
hours,  poor  air,  bad  water  and  cold  lunches  taken 
under  conditions  that  would  make  even  good  food 
which  they  rarely  have,  indigestible.  The  men  are 
so  done  up  at  the  end  of  the  day  that  they  take 
liquor  as  a  means  of  quick  if  brief  recuperation. 

There  is  no  little  proof  of  the  soundness  of  this 
view  to  be  drawn  from  the  experiments  of  factories 
who  have  corrected  these  evils.  The  Clothcraft 


H4 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Shop  in  Cleveland  is  a  brilliant  example  of  the  effect 
that  the  best  of  shop  conditions  has  on  the  saloon. 
Mr.  Feiss  tells  me  that  as  soon  as  they  had  their 
lunch  room  and  recreation  grounds  in  working  order 
there  was  an  immediate  reduction  in  the  number  of 
men  patronizing  the  neighbouring  grog  shops. 
“  With  the  aid  of  moral  suasion,”  Mr.  Feiss  writes, 
“  this  effect  grew  so  that  two  out  of  three  saloons 
in  our  immediate  proximity  disappeared.  We 
finally  went  to  our  men  and  asked  them  to  remain 
on  our  premises  during  the  noon  hour,  issuing  passes 
only  to  those  who  went  home  for  lunch.  The  effect 
was  to  drive  away  the  remaining  saloon,  and  no  one 
has  since  attempted  to  establish  one  in  our  neighbour¬ 
hood.” 

How  much  has  good  food  to  do  with  this  result 
—  which  is  one  that  I  have  known  in  other  cases? 
This  much  is  certain,  with  plenty  of  wholesome, 
well-cooked  food,  men  work  more  easily  and  con¬ 
tinuously  than  they  do  when  they  mix  alcohol  with 
food.  Those  who  have  read  Forbes  Mitchell  on  the 
Great  Mutiny  will  remember  his  repeated  testimony 
that  what  men  need  on  exhausting  marches  and  be¬ 
fore  and  after  battles  is  “  grub,”  not  “  grog.” 
“  My  experience  is,”  he  writes,  “  that  the  soldiers 
who  could  best  look  after  their  stomachs  were  also 
those  who  could  make  the  best  use  of  the  bayonet, 
and  who  were  the  least  likely  to  fall  behind  in  a 
forced  march.  If  I  had  the  command  of  an  army 
in  the  field  my  rule  would  be:  ‘  Cut  the  grog,  and 
give  double  grub  when  hard  work  has  to  be  done !  ’  ” 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


115 

Some  of  our  modern  employers  are  revising  this 
formula  to  read  “  cut  the  grog  and  give  milk.”  So 
formidable  a  competitor  of  beer  has  milk  become  in 
some  quarters  that  I  have  seen  advertisements  ad¬ 
vising  workingmen  to  remember  that  beer  is  the 
most  healthy  drink  in  the  world  after  milk.  Dr. 
Harvey  of  the  Crane  Company  in  Chicago,  a  con¬ 
cern  where  for  years  the  most  careful  and  intelligent 
study  has  been  given  to  every  phase  of  the  workers’ 
life,  believes  that  milk  may  take  away  the  desire  for 
beer.  “  For  many  years,”  Dr.  Harvey  writes,  “  our 
company  has  encouraged  the  consumption  of  milk  by 
employes.  The  company  permits  a  milk  dealer, 
whose  milk  is  approved  by  the  City  Health  Depart¬ 
ment,  to  go  through  the  shops  with  bottled  milk  and 
sell  direct  to  the  men  at  their  work.  Employes,  in 
the  habit  of  taking  a  lunch  in  the  middle  of  the  fore¬ 
noon,  thus  get  a  nourishing  lunch  of  milk,  instead  of 
indigestible  bologna,  sausage,  pickles,  etc.  The 
milk  men  also  time  their  visits  and  have  their  wagons 
at  the  front  doors  of  the  different  shops,  so  that 
workmen  may  provide  themselves  with  milk  for  the 
lunch  hour.  This  practice  of  encouraging  the  use 
of  milk  is  believed  to  have  reduced  the  amount  of 
beer  formerly  consumed.” 

An  even  more  potent  cause  of  drunkenness  than 
poor  food  lies  in  the  fact  that  outside  of  his  home 
a  workingman  often  has  no  club,  no  bank,  even  no 
toilet  room  but  the  saloon.  His  hours  have  been 
such  that  they  made  it  impossible  for  him  to  deposit 
or  cash  a  check  in  a  bank.  Often  he  never  sees  the 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


1 16 

inside  of  a  shop  of  any  kind  unless  on  Saturday 
night.  The  extent  to  which  a  workingman  is  cut  off 
from  the  ordinary  conveniences  and  meeting  and 
trading  places  of  men  by  his  hours,  the  location  of 
his  working  place,  the  condition  in  which  labour 
leaves  his  clothes  and  his  body  at  the  close  of  the 
day,  have  rarely  been  taken  into  count  in  studying 
the  attractions  of  the  saloon.  He  was  forced  to  use 
it,  and  as  long  as  he  had  money  to  buy  a  drink  he 
found  the  saloon  cordial  and  democratic.  u  Cash 
your  check?  Sure.” — “Wash  up?  Sure.”  “Sit 
and  read?  Sure.” 

When  the  nickles  and  dimes  cease  to  flow  across 
the  counter  this  welcome  is  quickly  chilled.  Nobody 
without  money  or  credit  can  use  the  saloon.  This 
the  deluded  workingman  finds  when  he  loses  his 
job. 

Saloons  in  the  neighbourhood  of  factories  feel 
the  effect  of  every  convenience  and  comfort  installed. 
“  We  have  closed  one  place  near  us,”  I  heard  a 
business  manager  say  once,  “  simply  by  cashing  the 
men’s  checks.  We  wakened  up  to  the  fact  that  they 
were  forced  practically  to  buy  a  glass  of  something 
to  get  their  money.” 

There  is  no  body  of  men  so  wedded  to  grog  that 
it  will  not  be  influenced  by  good  food,  amusements, 
opportunities  for  improvement  and  the  personal  in¬ 
terest  of  their  superiors.  A  striking  demonstration 
of  this  is  reported  by  the  Lake  Carriers’  Association. 
The  men  on  the  Great  Lakes  in  the  past  have 
worked  under  about  as  bad  conditions  as  could  be 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


117 


conceived,  with  the  result  that  usually  the  chief  thing 
they  provided  for  a  trip  was  a  jug  of  whiskey.  Six 
years  ago  the  Association  set  heartily  to  work  to 
make  things  over  for  the  men  on  their  particular 
boats.  They  have  provided  the  best  of  sanitation 
and  ventilation,  the  food  and  water  are  carefully 
supervised.  Quarters  are  comfortable.  Assembly 
rooms  are  provided  at  the  various  ports  frequently 
with  night  schools.  Since  this  campaign  of  improve¬ 
ments  began  accidents  due  to  intoxication  have  been 
automatically  cut  down  75  per  cent.  The  improve¬ 
ment  has  been  so  great  that  recently  the  captains  and 
engineers  of  the  boats  sent  to  the  Board  of  Direc¬ 
tors  of  the  Association  the  following  recommenda¬ 
tion,  begging  that  it  be  adopted: 

That  all  masters  and  chief  engineers  of  the  Lake  Car¬ 
riers’  Association  be  instructed  that  temperance  shall  be 
encouraged  as  much  as  possible  among  the  crews  and  be 
made  a  consideration  for  promotion  as  between  men  of 
otherwise  equal  merit.  Further,  that  notice  to  the  effect 
that  drinking  is  prohibited  aboard  the  boat  and  that  no 
person  be  allowed  to  carry  liquor  aboard  the  vessel  be  posted 
in  the  rooms  of  the  deckhands  and  firemen.  Further,  that 
the  Lake  Carriers’  Association  provide  temperance  pledges 
and  buttons  in  their  assembly  rooms  and  aboard  the  vessels 
for  free  distribution  among  the  men. 

Let  those  who  scorn  “  welfare  work  ”  ponder 
these  things. 

Quite  as  potent  a  cause  of  drunkenness  as  bad 
conditions  is  the  lack  of  pleasures,  of  “  things  to  do.” 


1 18 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Almost  anything  which  arouses  the  interest  is  an 
enemy  to  liquor.  I  have  known  the  trade  of  saloons 
seriously  cut  into  by  school  gardens  in  the  neighbour¬ 
hood.  The  men  became  so  much  interested  in  what 
their  youngsters  were  doing  that  they  helped  in  the 
gardens  after  work  instead  of  going  to  the  saloon. 
That  is  what  has  happened  in  the  coke  villages  of 
Western  Pennsylvania,  whose  gardens  are  described 
in  Chapter  VI.  There  are  no  saloons  allowed  in 
these  company  towns,  but  a  beer  wagon  makes  the 
rounds  once  or  twice  a  week  leaving  a  keg  or  crate 
of  bottles  at  almost  every  house.  When  the  garden¬ 
ing  season  opens  it  will  sometimes  lose  a  customer 
for  weeks.  “  Tam  gartens,”  one  of  the  drivers  was 
heard  to  say — “  eatin’  up  my  pizness!” 

There  is  no  doubt  that  one  reason  Vandergrift, 
Pennsylvania,  has  been  so  successful  as  a  “  dry  ” 
town  is  that  the  workingmen  run  it.  When  Vander¬ 
grift  was  founded  there  was  but  one  restriction  put 
upon  the  property.  For  99  years  no  liquor  was  to 
be  sold  within  its  boundaries.  The  working  people 
with  whom  this  contract  was  made  were  admirably 
adapted  to  respect  and  support  it.  They  were  as 
a  rule  American  born,  most  of  them  from  farms  in 
the  neighbouring  counties.  By  training  and  tradi¬ 
tion  they  were  temperate.  They  believed  Vander- 
grift’s  future  would  depend  in  a  very  large  degree 
upon  its  no-liquor  policy,  and  this  has  proved  true. 

It  is  now  a  town  of  about  4,500  inhabitants. 
Ninety  per  cent,  of  it  is  owned  by  men  who  work  for 
wages.  These  men  carry  in  the  Savings  Bank  over 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


119 


a  million  dollars,  and  own  something  like  125  auto¬ 
mobiles.  That  is,  they  and  not  saloon  keepers  are 
getting  rich.  It  is  peaceful  as  well  as  prosperous. 
Two  policemen  on  twelve-hour  shifts  look  after  law 
and  order,  and  they  say  in  the  town  that  the  one  on 
duty  can  generally  be  found  asleep  on  the  steps  of 
the  Casino.  This  Casino,  most  effectively  placed  on 
the  town’s  largest  plaza,  has  two  wings;  one  houses 
the  library,  and  the  other  the  town  council  and  jail. 
I  have  heard  the  librarian  argue  that  the  jail  is  used 
so  little  she  ought  to  have  it  for  books.  It  is  some¬ 
times  needed,  however.  In  the  first  three  months  of 
1914  five  different  persons  spent  a  night  there,  two 
of  them  tramps  glad  of  free  lodging.  It  was  a 
fairly  typical  record. 

A  clergyman  who  came  to  Vandergrift  after  hav¬ 
ing  spent  years  in  other  industrial  towns  of  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  told  me  that  never  in  any  community  where 
he  had  been  stationed  had  he  known  of  a  working¬ 
man  on  the  official  board  or  carrying  the  plate  on 
Sunday.  Here  there  were  no  others  to  perform 
these  duties.  Workingmen  make  up  the  Town 
Council,  the  Board  of  Education.  The  men  have 
places  to  go,  things  to  do  after  working  hours. 
They  are  responsible  citizens,  carrying  a  town  on 
their  shoulders,  and  both  the  dignity  and  the  serious¬ 
ness  of  the  task  keeps  them  steady. 

If  Vandergrift  like  the  average  “  dry  ”  town  had 
been  run  by  politicians,  merchants,  and  the  profes¬ 
sional  class,  the  man  with  the  dinner  pail  being  prac¬ 
tically  excluded  from  office  and  the  urgent  feel  of  re- 


120 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


sponsibility,  it  is  doubtful  if  prohibition  ever  could 
have  been  the  complete  success  it  has  been. 

If  the  public  and  the  workingmen  as  a  body  would 
back  up  the  employer  if  he  refused  to  hire  a  man 
that  drank,  the  problem  would  be  simplified,  but 
there  is  only  one  industry  in  which,  so  far,  this  is 
done,  and  that  is  railroading.  Among  the  general 
rules  in  the  standard  code  of  The  American  Rail¬ 
way  Association  is  the  following: 

The  use  of  intoxicants  by  employes  while  on  duty  is  pro¬ 
hibited.  Their  use,  or  the  frequenting  of  places  where  they 
are  sold,  is  sufficient  cause  for  dismissal. 

The  rules  contained  in  the  Standard  Code  have  been 
adopted  by  a  great  many  of  the  railroads  of  this 
country.  It  is  probable  that  the  public  would  sup¬ 
port  the  railroad  in  enforcing  the  rules  to  the  letter. 
Whether  the  courts  and  unions  would  is  uncertain, 
though  they  have  already  put  themselves  on  record 
as  supporting  dismissal  for  intoxication.  In  1913  a 
passenger  conductor  was  dismissed  for  intoxication 
while  on  duty  by  the  St.  Louis  Southwestern  Rail¬ 
way.  The  Order  to  which  this  man  belonged  took 
up  his  case  and  secured  a  strike  vote.  Before  the 
strike  was  enforced,  however,  such  conclusive  evi¬ 
dence  that  the  man  had  been  drunk  was  put  before 
certain  members  of  the  unions  interested  that  a  com¬ 
mittee  of  them  challenged  the  vote,  and  obtained  a 
Court  injunction.  The  case  finally  went  before  the 
Federal  Board  of  Mediation,  and  was  settled  by  the 
unions  withdrawing  their  demand  that  the  dismissed 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


121 


conductor  be  re-installed.  The  point  of  interest 
here  is  that  as  the  judge  who  granted  the  injunction 
said,  “  It  is  conceded  on  both  sides  that  if  the  con¬ 
ductor  was  intoxicated  as  charged,  he  was  properly 
discharged.” 

As  things  now  are  the  employer  or  manager  who 
has  set  out  to  make  “sober  first”  the  rule  of  his 
shop  will  have  no  such  backing  as  the  railroads  find. 
His  first  attack  and  his  most  fundamental  one 
should  be  on  conditions.  But  he  knows  well  enough 
that  it  will  be  a  long  day  before  good  conditions 
alone  will  control  or  even  make  a  very  sweeping 
change  in  the  drinking  habits  of  many  groups  of 
workingmen.  They  have  the  habit  as  a  class.  The 
extent  to  which  this  is  true  both  statistics  and  ob¬ 
servation  show.  The  ten  States  in  the  country  hav¬ 
ing  the  largest  number  of  men  in  manufacturing  pur¬ 
suits  in  1910  were  the  ten  States  (with  two  excep¬ 
tions)  having  the  largest  number  of  saloons.  That 
is,  the  curve  of  the  saloon  in  the  United  States  is 
approximately,  not  exactly,  the  curve  of  the  work¬ 
ingman.1 

1  The  ten  States  having  the  largest  number  of  wage  earners  in 
manufacturing  pursuits  according  to  the  last  census  are,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Massachusetts,  Ohio,  New  Jersey,  Michigan, 
Wisconsin,  Idiana,  Missouri. 

The  ten  States  having  the  largest  number  of  saloons  in  the  same 
year  — 1910  —  were,  New  York,  36,915;  Illinois,  24,253;  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  22,849;  California,  17,500;  Ohio,  13,282;  Wisconsin,  12,710; 
New  Jersey,  11,871;  Missouri,  8,961;  Michigan,  8,782. 

There  is  one  striking  omission  from  each  list.  California,  the 
fourth  State  in  number  of  saloons,  does  not  appear  among  the  ten 
which  rank  first  in  number  of  wage  earners.  Massachusetts,  which 
is  fourth  in  the  list  of  workers,  does  not  figure  in  the  saloon  list. 


122 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Observation  in  and  near  manufacturing  districts 
corroborate  this  curve.  Stand  at  the  close  of  the 
working  day  near  the  exits  of  factories  in  open 
towns,  and  watch  the  men  fill  to  crowding  the 
saloons.  Go  to  the  mining  towns  where  saloons  are 
forbidden,  in  every  yard,  in  the  alleys,  often  in  the 
little  hallways,  you  will  find  conspicuous  in  the  litter 
which  makes  them  horrible  to  see,  piles  of  empty 
beer  bottles,  kegs  and  crates.  They  are  left-overs 
of  the  weekly  spree  at  home. 

A  still  more  vivid  exhibit  of  the  support  the 
workingman  gives  whisky  and  beer  is  the  fringe  of 
saloons  and  “  joints  ”  on  the  outskirts  of  “  dry  ”  or 
regulated  industrial  towns.  One  of  the  scandals  of 
Gary,  Indiana,  that  marvellous  new  made  city,  has 
been  the  “  Patch,”  a  wedge  of  land  running  into 
Gary,  but  not  owned  by  the  town,  and  so  not  subject 
to  its  liquor  restrictions.  The  Patch  became  a  street 
of  such  lawlessness  and  hateful  disorder  as  possibly 
did  not  for  a  time  exist  east  of  the  Mississippi, 
though  to-day  its  worst  period  is  in  a  fair  way  of 
being  outdone  in  the  hasty  powder  and  munition  set¬ 
tlements  which  war  and  greed  are  throwing  together 
in  or  near  so  many  great  industrial  centres.  With 
war  go  all  the  vices. 

What  is  to  be  done  for  and  with  these  tens  of 
thousands  who  drink  because  they  have  always  done 
so,  and  upon  whom  no  change  of  conditions  make  an 

Missouri  drinks  more  than  she  works,  so  to  put  it,  her  comparative 
place  in  the  two  lists  being  8  and  io.  So  does  Wisconsin,  her 
rank  being  6  and  8. 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


123 


impression?  Our  modern  employer  is  a  tireless  ex¬ 
perimenter.  He  thrives  on  problems  human  as  well 
as  mechanical.  He  is  ready  to  try  anything.  He  is 
becoming  one  of  the  best  patrons  of  drunk  cures  that 
there  is  in  the  country,  and  though  he  by  no  means 
is  always  rewarded,  the  percentage  of  success  justi¬ 
fies  trying  it  in  many  cases.  Procter  and  Gamble 
of  Cincinnati  have  for  years  sent  men  on  whom  no 
persuasion  had  had  effect  to  a  cure  and  with  encour¬ 
aging  results.  One  man  was  sent  three  times  before 
the  appetite  finally  yielded.  He  has  been  sober  so 
long  now  they  consider  him  cured.  There  are  not 
many  employers  in  the  country  who  would  show  the 
same  patience,  but  Procter  and  Gamble  have  always 
had  a  high  sense  of  their  responsibility. 

The  man  who  has  set  out  to  make  “  sober  first  ” 
the  rule  of  his  shop  uses  the  drink  cure,  and  he  by 
no  means  despises  Billy  Sunday.  He  knows  that 
men  often  have  so  lost  self-control  and  self-respect 
that  nothing  will  avail  but  a  rough  jar,  a  liberal 
pounding  of  head  and  heart  such  as  Sunday  gives. 
The  result  of  his  work,  particularly  in  the  steel  and 
iron  towns  of  Western  Pennsylvania  and  Eastern 
Ohio,  corroborate  his  judgment. 

Sunday’s  famous  sermon  on  “  booze  ”  has  again 
and  again  brought  audiences  of  thousands  of  men 
to  their  feet  in  an  almost  unanimous  judgment  that 
they  and  the  world  would  be  happier  on  a  water 
basis.  “  Come  up  here,  kids,”  Sunday  cries  out. 
“  Come  on,  let  them  see  you.”  A  dozen  or  more 
.boys  walk  out  sheepish  and  awkward  to  the  front 


124 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


of  the  stage.  “  Men,  you  see  before  you  the  raw 
material  of  the  saloon.  There  isn’t  a  drunkard  in 
the  world,  or  one  who  has  gone  to  his  grave  in 
hell  through  liquor,  who  one  day  was  not  exactly 
like  these  boys.  Look  at  them,  innocent,  clean 
pure,  with  every  prospect  in  life !  They  are  what 
whiskey  preys  upon!  ” 

Who  could  be  so  hardened  that  he  would  resist 
this  plea?  Sunday  has  swept  the  saloons  of  hun¬ 
dreds  upon  hundreds  of  patrons  in  his  campaigns. 
How  permanent  have  the  results  been?  I  put  this 
question  to  an  officer  of  one  of  the  greatest  plants 
near  Pittsburgh,  one  truly  desirous  of  seeing  liquor 
put  under. 

As  far  as  lessening  the  number  of  saloons  in  either  Pitts¬ 
burgh  or  Allegheny  County  [he  answered],  I  do  not  believe 
it  has  made  a  particle  of  difference.  I  do  believe,  however, 
that  in  individual  cases  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  lasting 
good  done;  for  instance  I  know  of  two  puddlers  who  work 
for  our  company  who  were  drunk  nearly  every  night  of 
their  lives,  and,  after  coming  under  the  influence  of  Mr. 
Sunday,  neither  of  them  have  had  a  drink  since.  I  believe 
there  has  been  considerable  good  done  in  this  way.  Sunday 
was  in  our  town  six  weeks  about  three  or  four  years  ago, 
and  I  believe  the  good  effects  of  his  work  are  still  felt  in 
that  community. 

This  answer  averages  well  with  a  score  I  have 
received  from  fair-minded  men  in  positions  to  know 
the  aftermath  of  Billy  Sunday’s  exertions.  It  is  a 
method  which  will  never  be  abandoned  as  long  as 


"  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


125 


men  get  down  where  so  many  of  them  are  when 
Sunday  attacks  them. 

Quite  as  direct  as  Sunday’s  method,  though  less 
pungent  and  emotional,  are  the  appeals  of  the  safety 
bulletins  and  factory  organs  which  many  corpora¬ 
tions  and  firms  now  support.  The  liveliest  amateur 
editing  I  know  is  done  in  these  little  periodicals. 
The  fixing  of  drink  as  a  large  factor  in  accidents  has 
turned  all  the  safety  sheets  into  temperance  ad¬ 
vocates.  Satire  and  ridicule  are  the  chief  weapons. 
There  are  few  men  who  can  get  away  from  a  para¬ 
graph  like  this  which  is  now  going  the  rounds  of 
the  bulletins. 

For  the  Married  Man  Who  Cannot  Get  Along 
Without  Drinks,  the  Following  Is  Sug¬ 
gested  as  a  Means  of  Freedom  from 
Bondage  to  the  Saloon: 

Start  a  saloon  in  your  own  house.  Be  the  only  customer. 
You’ll  have  no  license  to  pay.  Go  to  your  wife  and  give 
her  two  dollars  to  buy  a  gallon  of  whiskey,  and  remember 
there  are  sixty-nine  drinks  in  a  gallon  of  whiskey.  Buy  your 
drinks  from  no  one  but  your  wife,  and  by  the  time  the  first 
gallon  is  gone  she  will  have  eight  dollars  to  put  into  the 
bank,  and  two  dollars  to  start  business  again.  Should  you 
live  ten  years  and  continue  to  buy  booze  from  her,  and  then 
die  with  snakes  in  your  boots,  she  will  have  enough  money 
to  bury  you  decently,  educate  your  children,  buy  a  house 
and  lot,  marry  a  decent  man,  and  quit  thinking  about  you 
entirely. 

You  can  count,  too,  on  these  factory  bulletins 
making  excellent  use  of  every  item  of  news  that 


126 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


makes  a  temperance  argument.  Such  paragraphs 
as  the  following  go  the  rounds  of  the  greatest  fac¬ 
tories  in  the  country. 

A  recent  dispatch  from  Kansas  City  states  that  Kansas 
has  purchased,  in  the  past  year,  $37,000,000  worth  of  motor 
cars,  and  that  some  bankers  are  apprehensive  as  to  whether 
this  continued  drain  on  the  resources  of  the  State  may  not, 
eventually,  be  very  much  felt.  A  Wichita  president  is 
not  troubled,  however.  “  If  you  will  compare  our  bank 
deposits  for  each  year,”  he  says,  “  you  will  note  a  steady 
increase  in  them,  so  we  are  not  loaning  money  to  buy  auto¬ 
mobiles,  neither  is  there  any  decided  decrease  in  the  banks 
of  the  State,  either  national  or  state.  We  are  buying  our 
automobiles  and  paying  for  them,  and  I  do  not  believe  any¬ 
body  need  have  grave  apprehensions  as  to  the  result  upon 
our  general  finances. 

“  There  is  another  side  to  this  problem  that  I  am  won¬ 
dering  if  the  general  public  has  figured  on.  Reliable  sta¬ 
tistics  show  that  a  sister  State  spends  $24  per  capita  for 
liquor  per  year,  and  that  Kansas  spends  $1.50  per  capita 
for  liquor  of  1,700,000.  If  I  figure  it  correctly,  this  gives 
Kansas  something  over  $38,000,000  to  spend  each  year, 
which  the  sister  State  does  not  have. 

“  The  money  spent  for  liquor  fills  orphans’  homes,  puts 
widows  over  the  washtubs,  keeps  insane  asylums  running 
overtime  and  does  a  fair  job  of  filling  up  the  pauper  end 
of  the  cemeteries.  The  Kansas  man  who  buys  an  automo¬ 
bile,  loads  his  family  into  the  car,  takes  them  out  into  open 
air,  prolongs  his  own  life  and  gives  his  wife  and  children 
something  of  what  is  theirs  by  right. 

“  I  think  our  financiers  need  not  worry  about  our  auto¬ 
mobiles  until  they  have  solved  the  problem  of  the  awful 
waste  of  the  liquor  traffic.” 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


127 


None  of  these  efforts  cover  the  entire  field. 
There  are  always  good  workingmen  that  conditions 
do  not  touch.  There  are  men  who  will  not  take  a 
cure,  and  can  hear  Billy  Sunday  unmoved.  Their 
cases  go  deeper  and  to  reach  them  some  of  the 
finest  kind  of  individual  work  is  done.  Not  done 
simply  in  small  shops  of  a  few  hundred  employes, 
but  in  big  ones  of  several  thousands.  There  are 
no  rules  for  treating  Tom,  Dick  and  Harry.  The 
head  of  the  service  bureau  of  one  big  concern,  a 
man  who  meets  problems  with  fine  intelligence  and 
sympathy,  declares  that  it  is  as  difficult  to  say  how 
he  would  handle  an  incorrigible  case  as  it  would 
be  for  a  doctor  to  diagnose  a  case  without  seeing  the 
patient.  He  studies  his  man,  finds  the  point  at 
which  he  thinks  he  can  be  touched  and  then  pre¬ 
pares  for  his  attack.  He  tells  of  one  man  whom 
he  was  unable  to  reach  until  he  discovered  he  was 
extremely  sensitive  to  ridicule.  On  two  succeeding 
sprees  he  told  an  impossible  story  as  to  the  cause  of 
his  absence,  and  by  spreading  the  story  among  the 
other  foremen  and  his  fellow  workmen,  they  made 
life  miserable  for  him  with  unmerciful  kidding. 
This  was  ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  and  he  has  never 
been  drunk  since. 

At  the  Ford  plant  in  Detroit  where  at  this  writ¬ 
ing  some  20,000  men  are  employed  there  is  an  un¬ 
tiring  effort  to  secure  sobriety.  There  is  no  at¬ 
tempt  to  bring  men  to  signing  the  pledge  so  far  as 
I  know,  no  interference  with  the  regular  glass  of 
-beer.  It’s  “  getting  drunk,”  which  prevents  the 


128 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


“  big  envelope  ”  (the  $5.00  a  day)  going  to  a  man, 
or  takes  it  away.  There  are  numberless  cases  of 
men  picked  out  of  the  gutter,  put  through  a  “  cure  ” 
and  now  on  the  straight  road.  They  will  go  to 
any  length  in  their  war  on  the  liquor  habit.  Mr. 
Lee,  the  former  head  of  the  sociological  department 
says  emphatically,  “  We'll  do  anything.”  He  tells 
of  one  case  where  a  man,  who  had  boldly  made  him¬ 
self  drunk  in  the  presence  of  an  investigator,  was 
carried  bodily  to  a  cure.  To-day,  so  far  as  one  can 
tell,  he  is  forever  done  with  liquor.  “  Eating  out 
of  his  wife’s  hand,”  he  wras  described  to  me!  The 
loyalty  of  that  wife  to  Ford's  is  eternal. 

The  man  once  cured,  has,  too,  nothing  but  grati¬ 
tude.  One  of  the  most  wonderful  temperance  lec¬ 
tures  I  ever  heard  was  from  a  man  of  thirty  who 
had  been  brought  into  line  through  the  determined 
efforts  of  a  Ford  investigator.  He  was  a  clean, 
fresh  boy,  still  solemn  with  the  wonder  of  his  re¬ 
demption.  “  Lady,”  he  said,  “  if,  when  I  was  a 
boy,  somebody  had  talked  to  me  as  these  people 
have,  if  there  had  been  anybody  to  be  interested  in 
me  like  they  are,  I'd  have  money  enough  laid  up 
to  live  without  working.  I’m  a  good  workman, 
always  was  when  I  was  sober,  but  generally  I  was 
in  the  gutter.  I  wasn't  happy!  No  drinking  man 
is.  When  I  went  home  nothing  looked  right  to  me. 
I  didn’t  like  the  way  my  supper  tasted,  and  I  didn’t 
like  my  wife’s  looks.  I  was  breaking  down  too.  I 
hadn’t  a  friend.  Talk  about  the  saloon  keeper  be¬ 
ing  a  man’s  friend.  He  is  when  you  have  money 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


129 


to  spend,  can’t  do  enough  for  you.  Pats  you  on 
the  back,  cashes  your  orders,  lets  you  sit  and  read, 
do  anything  so  long  as  you  drink,  but  when  you 
stop,  he  stops.  I  met  a  saloon  keeper  to-day  that 
I’ve  paid  a  lot  of  money  to,  and  he  didn’t  even 
speak  to  me.  Nothing  to  it.  I’m  happy  now  and 
so’s  my  wife.  I  like  my  home,  and  I  eat  good; 
why  I’ve  gained  twenty-five  pounds  since  I  stopped,” 
and  so  on,  an  earnest  convinced  testimony  to  the 
benefits  of  sobriety. 

Of  course  there  are  those  that  fall.  But  that 
does  not  mean  they  are  given  up.  The  truth  is  the 
Sociological  Department  at  Ford’s  seems  to  hate  to 
give  up  a  man  as  much  as  the  Sales  Department 
hates  to  give  up  an  order.  They’re  “  making 
men,”  and  they  won’t  accept  defeat.  That  they’re 
held  to  this  by  Henry  Ford  is  certain.  “  Tell  the 
committee  they’ll  have  to  guess  again,”  he  sent  word 
in  reply  to  a  report  that  said  a  man  was  hopeless, 
and  better  be  discharged.  “  Do  you  mean  to  tell 
me  that  a  great  big  concern  like  this  with  all  the 
time  and  money  it  needs  must  give  up  a  poor  weak 
wretch  that  probably  never  had  a  chance.  Make  a 
man  of  him.  Find  a  way.” 

Where  a  factory  has  a  Medical  Department, 
breaking  up  drinking  habits  is  much  simpler.  The 
physician  is  able  to  demonstrate  to  the  workman 
the  physical  degeneracy  that  drink  causes.  He  can 
show  the  connection  between  hardened  arteries, 
diseased  kidneys  and  liver,  and  he  can  follow  a 
hard  case  up  as  was  impossible  before  the  days  of 


130 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


factory  dispensary  and  examinations.  Again  and 
again  men  are  literally  frightened  into  sobriety. 
One  doctor  tells  of  finding  in  1912  in  his  routine 
examination  an  old  employe  with  an  enlarged  heart, 
irregular  in  its  action  and  a  high  blood  pressure;  a 
thin,  trembling  man,  who  was  a  chronic  drinker. 
“  He  and  I  discussed  his  condition  in  plain  terms,” 
the  doctor  says,  “  and  since  his  work  was  not  hard, 
he  was  allowed  to  go  back  to  it.  In  1913  his  con¬ 
dition  was  distinctly  worse,  so  much  worse  that  for 
safety’s  sake  his  work  had  to  be  changed  to  some¬ 
thing  easier.  Again  I  told  him  how  his  habits  were 
destroying  him,  and  urged  him  to  drop  them.  But 
he  didn’t,  though  I  saw  him  often.  In  1914  I 
found  him  a  wreck.  Try  as  hard  as  we  would  we 
could  not  think  of  a  job  in  the  entire  plant  that  he 
could  do  safely.  A  man  only  54  years  old,  yet 
tottering  and  trembling,  with  a  rickety  heart  and  a 
dangerous  blood  pressure,  a  premature  human 
wreck.  I  think  I  never  pleaded  and  begged  and 
argued  and  laboured  and  berated  any  man  as  I  did 
him.  I  told  him  that  the  scrap  heap  was  waiting 
for  him,  and  he  was  ready  for  it,  and  the  work  had 
been  produced  solely  by  himself  and  John  Barley¬ 
corn. 

“  Finally,  since  he  was  an  old  employe  of  the 
company,  a  job  was  made  for  him,  and  we  let  him 
think  he  was  working,  for  he  and  his  must  live.  I 
was  heartsick  and  thoroughly  discouraged.  Soon 
after  that  he  left  the  employ  of  the  company,  and  I 
lost  track  of  him. 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


131 

“  One  year  and  four  days  later,  he  came  back. 
I  scarcely  knew  him.  He  was  clean,  his  skin  was 
clear,  his  hand  was  steady,  he  had  gained  eighteen 
pounds.  His  heart  was  regular  and  he  looked  like 
a  man.  When  I  shook  hands  with  him,  there  was 
a  lump  in  my  throat.  Finally  I  said,  ‘  Well,  Nick, 
tell  me  all  about  it.’  He  replied,  4  Well,  Doc,  there 
ain’t  much  to  say,  except  I  ain’t  took  a  drink  since 
the  day  you  and  me  talked  things  over,  a  year  ago.’ 

“  To-day  he  is  doing  the  work  he  did  several  years 
ago,  and  is  doing  it  better.” 

“  Find  a  way  ”  is  becoming  in  scores  of  the  great¬ 
est  and  richest  manufacturing  concerns  in  the  coun¬ 
try  the  rule  in  regard  to  drink  as  it  is  in  regard  to 
safety.  I  doubt  indeed  if  there  is  any  agency  to-day 
making  anything  like  as  persistent,  spirited,  ingen¬ 
ious  attack  on  the  use  of  liquor  as  that  of  our  mod¬ 
ern  industrial  management.  The  attack  is  only 
just  begun.  It  is  bound  to  go  on  as  is  that  on  long 
hours,  unfair  distribution  of  profits,  inefficiency, 
autocracy  of  management,  blind  alleys  —  every  evil 
that  hampers  the  full  development  of  industrial  life. 
Progress  will  be  the  more  rapid  because  it  is  becom¬ 
ing  clear  to  so  many  that  here  as  at  other  points 
that  which  was  looked  on  as  a  purely  moral  ques¬ 
tion  is  also  an  economic  question.  It  is  another  one 
6f  accumulating  proofs  that  only  good  morals  are 
good  business.  This  realisation  brings  a  profes¬ 
sional  and  scientific  spirit  to  the  handling  of  the 
liquor  problem  which  it  has  almost  always  lacked. 

.  It  takes  it  out  of  the  amateur  class. 


132 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Certainly  it  cannot  be  forgotten  that  there  have 
always  been  in  our  factories  and  shop  employers 
who  concerned  themselves  sincerely  in  the  question. 
They  were  men  with  a  large  sense  of  personal  re¬ 
sponsibility.  They  could  not  get  away  from  the 
Biblical  hint  that  we  are  our  brothers’  keeper;  but 
usually  they  looked  on  their  efforts  as  a  social  or 
religious  duty,  not  as  a  natural  part  of  their  business 
management. 

On  this  type  of  employer,  their  hard-headed  col¬ 
leagues  have  always  made  a  sharp  attack.  They 
were  engaged  in  a  struggle  to  establish  the  principle 
that  humanity  had  nothing  to  do  with  business. 
The  man  who  practised  it  was  a  traitor  to  his  class. 
Business  had  but  one  end,  and  that  was  profits. 
The  relations  of  those  in  it  consequently  were  im¬ 
personal  and  mechanical.  Such  a  conception  of  any 
human  undertaking  is  bound  to  fail.  It  is  contrary 
to  the  nature  of  men.  Hard  and  brutal  and  greedy 
as  they  may  exhibit  themselves,  there  is  in  them  all 
wells  of  sentiment,  of  good  feeling,  of  love  of  justice. 
These  springs  can  be  capped  until  they  dry  up,  but 
it  takes  years  to  do  it. 

The  realisation  by  progressive  industry  that  the 
hard  conception  that  greed  and  narrowness  have 
tried  to  fasten  on  it  was  a  fatal  economic  error, 
has  come  to  thousands  of  younger  men  as  a  revela¬ 
tion.  It  has  loosened  powers  and  impulses  and  en¬ 
thusiasms  which  they  had  never  suspected  in  them¬ 
selves.  They  are  finding  in  business  possibilities 
for  service,  for  citizenship,  for  the  development  of 


“  SOBER  FIRST  ” 


133 


both  themselves  and  those  under  their  direction, 
which  give  to  work  a  new  meaning;  to  moral  issues 
a  fresh  reason.  It  is  this  loosening  of  their  powers 
which  is  giving  new  life  to  many  an  old  hope  of 
this  tormented  world  and  among  them  that  of  a  day 
when  no  man  will  put  an  enemy  into  his  mouth  to 
steal  away  his  brains. 


CHAPTER  VI 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS 

Bad  habits  are  no  more  inimical  to  improving 
industrial  groups  than  bad  homes.  One  of  our 
greatest  safety  experts  says  that  safety  is  impossible 
if  a  man  is  poorly  housed  and  fed.  An  experiment¬ 
ing  and  successful  manufacturer  employing  hundreds 
of  girls  declares  that  unhappy  homes  make  unstable 
payrolls.  Competition  itself  is  forcing  employers 
to  consider  the  outside  life  of  their  employes.  The 
first  and  most  important  thing  they  must  consider 
is  the  house  the  man  lives  in. 

A  good  working  man  wants  a  home,  wants  it 
more,  on  the  whole,  than  any  other  thing.  He 
wants,  if  possible,  to  own  his  home.  Wherever 
you  find  stable  industries  in  this  country  you  find 
the  wage  earner  buying  a  bit  of  land  and  building 
a  house.  It  is  he  who  pushes  the  cities  out  in  long 
lines  of  tiny  cottages.  It  is  he  who  opens  “  addi¬ 
tions  ”  and  suburbs.  It  is  he  who  supports  the  ex¬ 
tensions  of  car  lines,  water,  gas  and  electric  mains. 
Take  the  street  car  in  various  directions  from  a 
growing  place  like  Kansas  City  and  note  the  miles 
and  miles  of  gay  bungalows  and  trim  houses.  It 
is  the  man  on  wages  who  made  the  building  of  them 
necessary. 


134 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  135 


In  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan,  an  industrial  town 
of  some  112,000  inhabitants,  there  were,  in  1914, 
when  these  figures  were  obtained  24,407  residences. 
The  greatest  number  of  these  were  workingmen’s 
houses,  street  upon  street  of  them.  Building  and 
loan  associations  and  the  banks  which  made  a 
specialty  of  loaning  money  on  workingmen’s  homes 
say  that  90  per  cent,  of  the  married  labourers  in  the 
town,  skilled  and  unskilled,  own  houses.  The 
average  cost  of  these  is  about  $2,000.  They  are, 
as  a  rule,  paid  for  in  ten  years.  As  the  average 
wage  is  only  a  little  over  two  dollars  a  day  it  de¬ 
mands  thrift  to  own  these  homes.  It  means  plain 
food  and  clothing,  inexpensive  amusements.  But 
happily  in  Grand  Rapids  it  does  not  mean  the  sac¬ 
rifice  of  education,  books,  or  pleasant  out-of-door 
life,  as  these  are  all  provided  by  the  city. 

Nine  years  ago  a  superintendent  in  the  Fairbanks 
Manufacturing  Company  of  Beloit,  Wisconsin, 
found  on  his  hands  a  piece  of  condemned  land  in  a 
new  quarter  of  the  town,  but  convenient  to  the  fac¬ 
tory.  He  decided  to  try  building  houses  there  for 
the  married  men  in  the  plant.  In  seven  years  he 
built  one  hundred  and  thirty,  all  of  which  were 
quickly  taken  and  on  no  one  of  which  has  he  ever 
lost  a  cent.  The  terms  were  easy.  The  first  pay¬ 
ment  was  frequently  as  low  as  $25.  I  went  through 
an  attractive,  well-built  house  with  a  good  furnace, 
gas,  water,  electricity,  and  land  enough  for  a  gar¬ 
den,  which  the  occupant  was  buying  for  $20  a  month. 
The  rent  of  such  a  place  was  about  $14  in  Beloit. 


136 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


There  were  plenty  of  men,  even  on  $2  a  day,  who 
were  willing  to  take  the  burden  of  such  a  place  on 
their  shoulders.  What  did  they  get?  What  do 
any  of  us  get  from  a  place  “of  our  own”?  A 
sense  of  security  and  privacy  and  independence  — 
a  place  to  tinker  and  play  with.  We  get,  too,  the 
sense  of  property.  The  house  earned  has  been  in 
many  a  family’s  life  the  beginning  of  its  independ¬ 
ence. 

Happy  is  the  employer  who  can  shift  to  the 
shoulders  of  landlords,  of  building  associations,  of 
banks  and  of  speculators  the  responsibility  for  the 
kind  of  a  home  his  employe  lives  in.  He  can  only 
do  this  when  he  operates  within  or  near  a  town. 
Let  him  go  into  remote  and  unsettled  districts  and 
immediately  town  building  is  forced  upon  him.  If 
he  does  it  stingily,  half-heartedly,  he  is  sure  to  reap 
as  much  trouble  as  he  does  from  defective  ma¬ 
chinery,  if  he  does  not  ruin  utterly  his  chance  of 
success.  It  is  in  the  case  of  enterprises  which  are 
of  uncertain  or  temporary  duration  that  the  diffi¬ 
culties  are  greatest. 

If  a  company  opens  a  mine  in  the  mountains, 
scores  of  miles  from  a  town,  it  must  build  a  village, 
and  it  must  own  it,  for  the  simple  reason  that  mines 
are  not  necessarily  durable  properties.  They  “  run 
out,”  and  when  they  run  out  the  town  is  abandoned, 
its  houses  are  as  useless  as  the  shafts  and  the  gal¬ 
leries.  LTder  these  circumstances  no  miner  can  be 
expected,  or  would  he  desire,  to  own  his  home;  no 
more  would  outside  builders  venture  investment. 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  137 


The  company  is  compelled  to  be  its  own  landlord. 
It  is  frequently  compelled  to  be  its  own  town  council, 
schoolmaster,  policeman,  justice  of  the  peace.  As 
the  body  of  the  working  people  will  be  non-Eng- 
lish-speaking  and  of  many  nationalities,  few  of  them 
will  understand  American  standards  of  living,  even 
less  will  they  understand  our  social  and  political 
customs.  The  management  will  not  understand  the 
miners.  Nine  times  out  of  ten  it  will  tell  you  — 
and  believe  —  that  they  prefer  to  live  like  swine, 
and  that  there  is  no  sense  in  attempting  to  provide 
anything  convenient,  attractive  or  orderly  for  them. 
But  is  it  true?  If  this  foreign  miner  and  his  family 
had  a  chance  to  live  decently  would  they  do  it? 
Yes !  Nineteen  times  out  of  twenty  they  would.  If 
any  one  doubts  it,  let  him  look  at  the  results  of  the  ef¬ 
forts  which  have  been  making  for  several  years  to 
redeem  the  towns  of  the  Frick  Cole  Company  in  the 
famous  Connellsville  district  of  Western  Pennsyl¬ 
vania. 

There  are  probably  no  mining  towns  in  this  coun¬ 
try  which  are  such  ghastly  living  places  as  the  coke 
towns.  The  ovens  —  I  am  speaking  here  of  the 
old  beehive  oven  which  belches  its  smoke  and  gas 
into  the  air,  not  of  the  modern  by-product  oven, 
which  largely  consumes  them  —  the  ovens  are  built 
in  long  rows,  twenty,  thirty  or  fifty  of  them  side  by 
side,  and  convenient  to  the  mouth  of  a  mine.  As 
the  coal  is  lifted  from  the  shaft  it  is  carried  to  the 
oven.  Night  and  day  the  semi-combustion  goes  on. 

When  the  coke  is  taken  from  the  oven  it  is 


138 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


screened  or  sifted.  Rapidly  there  grow  up  around 
the  ovens  and  the  mines  range  upon  range  of  these 
coke  screenings,  black,  desolate,  and  indescribably 
arid  and  dirty.  What  greenness  and  fertility  the 
screenings  do  not  bury,  the  smoke  and  gas  kill.  I 
have  seen  hillsides,  against  which  the  prevailing 
wind  turned  the  coke  oven  gases,  more  lifeless  and 
hideous  than  any  desert  on  earth.  To  add  to  the 
horror  of  it,  the  clear  streams  are  turned  to  a  yel¬ 
lowish-red  by  the  torrents  of  water  pumped  inces¬ 
santly  from  the  mines.  In  some  places  for  every 
ton  of  coal  ten  tons  of  water  are  lifted. 

This  is  what  the  coke  industry  does  to  its  imme¬ 
diate  neighbourhood.  No  place  for  man  to  live, 
one  would  say,  and  yet  hugging  close  to  the  desola¬ 
tion  are  the  “  company  houses.”  The  houses  may 
have  been  fairly  good  at  the  start,  many  of  them 
are  very  good,  and  in  almost  all  cases,  especially  in 
this  particular  company,  they  have  generous  space 
around.  Moreover,  the  rents  are  reasonable. 
Houses  with  four  good-sized  rooms  with  at  least 
an  eighth  of  an  acre  of  yard  rent  at  $5  a  month. 
The  largest  are  not  over  $10.  Fuel  is  free  in  nearly 
all  of  the  coke  settlements  if  you  will  cart  it.  The 
wages  are  fair,  $3.75  a  day  on  an  average,  with 
$2.1 5  for  nine  hours  to  the  unskilled  inside  man. 

T  his  sounds  well,  and  when  the  mine  is  opened 
and  the  houses  new  is  not  bad.  But  almost  imme¬ 
diately  the  operations  of  the  industry  ruin  the  settle¬ 
ment.  Smoke  and  gas  discolour  and  destroy  all 
freshness.  Screenings  pile  up  until  sometimes  the 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  139 


houses  are  standing  in  canyons.  There  are  no 
sewers,  no  pavements,  no  fences.  Refuse  and  filth 
collect.  Rains  cut  out  gullies  and  pile  up  banks, 
and  over  it  all  wander  at  will  pigs,  geese  and  chil¬ 
dren. 

I  doubt  if  the  villages  of  the  Frick  Coke  Com¬ 
pany  were  ever  quite  as  desolate  and  unsanitary  as 
many  that  are  still  to  be  seen  near  Pittsburgh,  but 
they  certainly  were  unfit  for  men  and  women  to  live 
in,  and  a  few  years  ago  the  company  decided  that 
they  must  be  redeemed.  The  leader  in  this  under¬ 
taking  was  the  president  of  the  company,  the  late 
Thomas  Lynch,  the  man  who  twenty  years  ago  in¬ 
troduced  the  “  Safety  First  ”  crusade  into  his  mines. 
The  order  that  came  to  the  mine  superintendents 
was,  briefly:  Clean  up  the  towns;  grade  the  streets 
and  put  in  cement  curbs  and  walks;  fence  the  yards 
and  cover  them  with  sufficient  soil  to  enable  the 
residents  to  raise  flowers  and  vegetables;  provide 
new  and  approved  vaults;  put  water  in  the  kitchens; 
add  porches;  paint  the  houses;  keep  the  alleys  as 
clean  as  the  streets,  and  teach  and  encourage  the 
people  both  to  keep  their  places  clean  and  to  make 
gardens.  This  order  applied  to  twenty  settlements, 
four  thousand  double  houses  in  all. 

Some  of  the  superintendents  had  an  idea  that 
the  management  had  gone  crazy.  “  It  couldn’t  be 
done.”  “  People  wouldn’t  appreciate  it.” 

It  is  certain  that  at  the  start  the  people  were  luke¬ 
warm.  In  one  case  where  the  houses  had  been  so 
deeply  engulfed  that  there  was  no  helping  things 


140 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  order  came  to  rebuild  them  on  open  ground. 
When  this  was  attempted  the  tenants  made  an  up¬ 
roar.  Men  even  wTent  to  the  company's  headquar¬ 
ters  to  see  Mr.  Lynch.  They  had  lived  for  twenty 
or  more  years  in  those  houses.  They  were  their 
homes.  If  they  were  torn  down  they  would  leave 
the  mines.  “  They’re  going  to  be  torn  down,”  Mr. 
Lynch  told  them.  The  superintendent  followed 
them.  “  If  we  tear  down  these  houses  we'll  have 
to  close  the  mine.  The  men  won’t  stand  for  it.” 
“  Close  the  mine,”  was  Mr.  Lynch’s  reply. 

That  was  five  years  ago.  In  the  fall  of  1913  I 
spent  three  days  driving  from  settlement  to  settle¬ 
ment  to  see  how  nearly  the  order  had  been  carried 
out  and  what  response  the  people  had  made.  I 
have  never  had  a  more  conclusive  demonstration 
that  no  living  conditions  can  be  so  bad  that 
they  cannot  be  redeemed,  and  that  no  fallacy  is  more 
complete  than  the  oft-quoted  one  that  foreigners 
prefer  to  live  like  swine. 

In  those  three  days  I  visited  at  least  a  dozen  of 
settlements,  and  in  all  of  them  the  programme  had 
been  applied  to  conditions  fully  as  bad  as  those  I 
have  described.  The  general  decency  of  things  in 
contrast  to  the  former  awful  indecency  first  struck 
one  —  the  decency,  the  order,  and  the  cleanliness. 
I  doubt  if  there  is  an  established  town  in  the  United 
States  that  can  show  as  clean  alleys  as  dozens 
through  wrhich  I  drove. 

One  of  the  changes  going  on  at  the  moment  in 
several  places,  in  which  tenants,  superintendents,  and 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  141 


particularly  Mr.  Lynch,  were  taking  the  liveliest  in¬ 
terest,  was  putting  water  into  the  kitchens. 

“  When  I  was  a  boy,”  Mr.  Lynch  said,  “  I  had 
to  carry  water  half  a  mile  for  my  mother,  and  dip 
it  up  at  that.  When  I  built  these  houses  twenty 
years  ago  I  put  a  hydrant  into  each  street,  and  I 
thought  I  was  doing  a  fine  thing.  To  have  water 
just  outside  the  yard  by  simply  turning  on  a  spigot 
seemed  to  me  all  the  human  heart  could  wish.  Of 
course  I  ought  to  have  carried  it  into  the  houses,  but 
it  never  occurred  to  me.” 

The  impression  of  these  towns  last  to  die  in  my 
mind  will  be  the  miles  and  miles  of  trim  white  fences 
and  outhouses.  It  was  interesting  to  see  how  con¬ 
tagious  the  painting  was.  The  company  paints 
everything  once  a  year,  but  I  found  several  ambi¬ 
tious  women  and  one  or  two  men  who  were  putting 
fresh  coats  on  the  front  porch  and  on  the  fence, 
something  to  make  them  a  little  finer  than  their 
neighbours. 

When  the  company  began  its  work  I  doubt  if  in 
all  the  eight  thousand  dooryards  there  was  a  bushel 
of  soil  in  which  a  seed  could  sprout.  Thousands 
upon  thousands  of  loads  of  dirt,  manure,  and  lime 
were  carted,  and  the  results  awaited.  There  were 
those  who  sneered  at  the  idea  that  these  men  and 
women  who,  some  of  them  for  twenty  years,  had 
lived  on  barren  ash  piles,  would  make  gardens. 
But  they  didn’t  know  their  world.  They  fell  to 
gardening  as  if  it  had  been  their  yearly  habit.  In 
1912  out  of  some  seven  thousand  families  in  the 


142 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


different  settlements  5,149  had  gardens  of  some 
kind;  in  1913,  6,293;  in  1914,  6,923. 

And  they  were  serious  gardens. 

To  encourage  them,  the  company  offers  in  each 
settlement  a  first,  second  and  third  prize.  The 
judges  are  chosen  from  neighbouring  farmers.  In 
1913  at  one  settlement  there  were  nine  plots  so 
good  that  the  judges  could  not  decide  between  them. 
They  spent  three  days  over  the  work  and  were  com¬ 
ing  a  fourth  when  Mr.  Lynch  heard  of  it.  It  was 
an  imposition,  he  said,  to  allow  them  to  give  so  much 
time;  he  would  give  nine  prizes.  And  he  did.  It 
was  October  when  I  visited  the  settlement,  and  they 
were  still  discussing  the  contest.  I  was  taken  from 
yard  to  yard  to  see  what  was  left  of  the  glory,  and 
in  the  “  best  room  ”  of  the  cottages  was  shown, 
often  gorgeously  framed,  the  certificates  each  prize¬ 
winner  had  received. 

There  is  much  more  than  glory  comes  from  the 
gardens.  In  1913  I  saw  many  cellars  packed  with 
enough  potatoes,  beets,  onions,  carrots  and  other 
vegetables,  to  carry  the  family  through  the  winter, 
and  at  one  place  I  saw  twenty-five  hundred  heads  of 
cabbage  sold  by  a  miner  to  the  company  store.  It 
is  estimated  that  in  1914  the  vegetable  gardens 
yielded  crops  worth  nearly  $143,000.  It  was  a  ver¬ 
itable  godsend  in  the  dull  times. 

The  redeeming  of  the  towns  has  cost  money. 
L'pward  of  a  million  dollars  has  been  spent:  more 
will  be  spent,  for  the  plans  are  steadily  enlarging. 
At  one  settlement  a  commodious  clubhouse  with  out- 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  143 


side  swimming  pool  and  play-grounds  for  the  chil¬ 
dren  has  been  provided.  Others  are  to  be  built. 
The  company  has  put  many  thousands  of  dollars 
into  ball  grounds.  The  housekeeping  centre  has 
been  introduced  at  one  place. 

Why  is  this  done?  Why  have  the  duties  of 
mine  superintendents  been  stretched  to  include  town 
sanitation,  gardening  and  amusements?  Why  is  the 
trained  nurse  becoming  a  regular  member  of  the 
superintendent’s  official  force?  It  is  not  charity. 
It  is  not  law.  It  is  not  public  opinion.  It  is  not 
advertising.  You  may  argue  that  all  these  forces 
have  influenced  the  policy.  No  doubt  they  have; 
they  influence  all  human  actions  more  or  less  directly. 
But  they  do  not  explain  the  redemption  of  the  Frick 
Coke  Towns.  This  redemption  is  as  much  a  part 
of  the  company’s  business  management  as  the 
method  of  taking  out  coal  or  making  coke.  They 
believe  that  the  success  of  their  business  depends 
more  upon  their  labouring  force  than  upon  any  one 
other  element.  To  have  efficient,  trustworthy,  and 
steady  men  you  must  have  healthy  and  contented 
men.  Men  are  neither  healthy  nor  contented  in 
wretched  homes. 

Moreover,  workers  naturally  gravitate  where  the 
conditions  are  best  and  the  opportunity  largest.  In 
the  great  mining  district  of  Western  Pennsylvania 
this  concern  can  keep  its  shifts  full  when  every  other 
mine  is  short  of  help.  It  has  its  choice  of  steady, 
able,  ambitious  miners.  It  has  run  unmolested  for 
-  months  when  all  about  neighbouring  mines  were  shut 


H4 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


down  because  of  strikes  brought  on  by  refusals  to 
grant  that  which  this  concern  provides  as  a  matter 
of  course,  as  a  feature  of  good  management.  If 
these  things  pay,  then  the  redemption  of  the  coke 
towns  pays. 

The  power  of  the  company  in  these  towns  dis¬ 
turbs  many.  They  have  in  mind  the  abuses  which 
are  so  familiar,  and  they  are  as  prone  to  believe 
them  inevitable  as  the  companies  are  prone  to  be¬ 
lieve  the  miners  incorrigible  in  their  disorder  and 
filth.  There  is  the  company  store.  It  is  as  diffi¬ 
cult  to  convince  a  critic  of  the  present  order  that  a 
company  can  run  an  honest  store  as  that  it  can  be  a 
considerate  landlord.  The  same  circumstances  that 
force  it  to  be  one,  force  it  to  be  the  other.  The 
only  question  is  whether  it  serves  or  exploits.  The 
company  stores  in  these  coke  towns  are  far  better 
than  the  independent  stores  in  the  adjacent  towns. 
The  goods  are  fresh  and  admirably  cared  for. 
The  prices  are  reasonable.  There  is  no  compul¬ 
sion  to  buy  other  than  that  of  circumstances.  Carts 
from  outside  are  free  to  peddle.  The  vegetables 
sold  are  often  the  products  of  the  settlement  gar¬ 
dens. 

As  for  the  government  of  the  settlement  being 
in  the  hands  of  the  company,  it  is:  but  actually  it 
rarely  disturbs  the  course  of  things.  Save  in  time 
of  trouble  the  settlements  run  themselves.  And 
there  is  very  little  danger  of  trouble  when  there  is 
no  exploitation,  no  harshness,  no  interference  with 
personal  freedom. 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  145 


Even  if  the  people  in  the  coke  settlements  could 
own  their  houses  they  probably  could  not  do  better 
than  to  let  the  towns  run  themselves.  Indeed, 
it  is  a  question  if  all  our  small  towns  would 
not  be  better  off  if  they  had  no  more  governmental 
machinery  than  these  coke  towns.  Leclaire,  Indiana, 
the  headquarters  of  the  Nelson  profit-sharing 
scheme,  has  no  town  government. 

It  just  runs  itself,  so  far  as  policing  is  concerned  [Mr. 
Nelson  says].  So  far  as  public  utilities  and  the  up-keeping 
of  the  streets,  the  lighting,  water,  the  ball  grounds,  the  lake, 
the  hall  and  the  kindergarten  rooms,  it  is  done  by  the  em¬ 
ployes  of  the  company,  and  the  company  is,  so  far  as  Leclaire 
is  concerned,  the  people  who  live  there. 

The  residents  could  at  any  time  incorporate  a  town  gov¬ 
ernment.  Between  a  quarter  and  a  third  of  the  residents 
are  not  our  employes;  but  I  have  never  heard  from  any 
source  a  suggestion  of  wanting  to  incorporate.  There  have 
never  been  any  rules  of  any  kind  to  govern  anybody’s  con¬ 
duct,  nor  any  occasion  for  arresting  or  even  reprimanding 
any  one.  We  have  never  in  any  manner  discriminated 
about  who  should  be  admitted,  either  as  employe  or  as  resi¬ 
dent.  If  there  is  work  for  a  competent  applicant  he  gets 
the  work.  If  an  employe  —  and  sometimes  other  people  — 
wants  a  house  built,  we  build  it,  and  on  such  monthly  pay¬ 
ments  as  he  and  we  think  he  can  afford,  having  due  regard 
for  his  pay  and  the  size  of  his  family. 

This  complete  freedom  resting  solely  on  voluntary  eco¬ 
nomic  and  social  action  is,  I  think,  the  key  to  Leclaire  suc¬ 
cess.  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  other  town  in  which  there 
is  as  much  loyalty  to  the  place  and  affection  for  their  homes 
.  and  social  relations  as  in  Leclaire. 


146 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Again  and  again  in  this  country,  when  a  man  of 
affairs  has  found  himself  committed  to  founding  a 
stable  industry  in  a  district  so  remote  that  he  must 
provide  a  town  for  workingmen,  his  mind  has  been 
captured  by  the  dream  of  building  something,  where 
health,  beauty,  freedom  and  prosperity  should  reign. 

The  means  to  realise  the  vision  has  been  given  to 
few.  Possibly  the  most  ambitious  attempt  was  a 
pitiful  failure  from  the  founder’s  point  of  view. 
This  was  Pullman,  Illinois,  which  failed  from  over¬ 
paternalism.  Men  want  to  putter  about  their 
homes;  Mr.  Pullman  insisted  on  doing  the  puttering 
himself.  Women  like  to  hang  their  clothes  in  the 
yard,  Mr.  Pullman  provided  an  enclosure.  But 
Mr.  Pullman  gave  this  country  a  standard  for  build¬ 
ing  and  landscape  gardening  which  was  a  revelation 
to  many  of  us,  and  he  gave,  also,  a  valuable  lesson 
in  what  not  to  do. 

His  failure  had  something  to  do  with  what  is 
probably  the  most  successful  workingman’s  town  in 
the  country,  at  least  one  of  the  five  or  six  most  suc¬ 
cessful.  This  is  the  town  of  Vandergrift,  forty 
miles  northeast  of  Pittsburgh  on  the  Kiskiminetas 
River. 

This  town  —  and  the  mills  which  made  it  neces¬ 
sary —  was  founded  to  meet  the  compelling  needs 
of  a  healthy  business.  The  business  was  that  of 
making  galvanised  iron.  It  had  been  started  some¬ 
time  in  the  70’s  and  had  limped  along  for  several 
years;  then  in  the  8o’s  new  interests  took  hold  of 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  147 


it.  The  man  at  the  head  was  the  late  George  G. 
McMurtry.  In  a  surprisingly  short  time  he  brought 
the  works  from  a  negligible  factor  in  the  business  to 
one  where  it  was  turning  out  more  galvanised  iron 
of  a  better  quality  than  any  other  plant  of  its  size 
in  the  world.  It  soon  had  burst  its  jacket,  too,  that 
is,  it  had  covered  all  the  available  land  for  its  pur¬ 
pose  in  its  vicinity.  Mr.  McMurtry  decided  to 
move,  and  in  1892,  twenty-four  years  ago  he  bought 
a  farm  of  six  hundred  and  forty  acres  on  which  he 
proposed  to  create  a  model  industrial  settlement. 
This  property  was  only  two  and  a  half  miles  from 
the  town  where  the  original  mills  were  located. 

Before  Mr.  McMurtry  made  a  plan  for  either 
mill  or  town  he  studied  the  best  of  both  in  this 
country  and  Europe.  The  towns  he  studied  in¬ 
cluded  Essen  in  Germany,  Creusot  in  France,  the 
co-operative  villages  of  Belgium,  the  various  Eng¬ 
lish  experiments,  the  communities  of  Russia.  He 
came  to  his  undertaking  with  positive,  matured  con¬ 
victions  as  to  what  should  and  what  should  not  be 
done,  and  to  carry  out  these  convictions  he  engaged 
the  best-equipped  specialists  in  the  country:  as  an 
example,  when  it  came  to  laying  out  the  town,  he 
chose  Frederick  Law  Olmsted,  probably  the  best 
landscape  artist  of  his  day. 

It  was  fully  three  years  after  the  property  was 
bought  before  Mr.  McMurtry  announced  his  plan 
to  the  men  in  the  works.  It  was  done  in  an  engag¬ 
ing  little  pamphlet  called  “  The  New  Town.” 


148 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


The  usual  way  of  building  a  city  [he  wrote]  is  to  build 
cheap,  tear  down  and  build  again.  No  grading  at  first ;  no 
pavements;  no  sewers;  no  water;  no  light;  no  health  or 
comfort.  By  and  by,  when  the  city  has  been  built  over 
once  or  twrice,  begin  again  by  sections,  grade,  build  sewers 
and  other  improvements;  and  then  it  is  fit  to  live  in  —  for 
those  who  have  money  enough.  It  costs  an  enormous  amount 
of  money  to  build  a  city  in  that  way.  That  is  why  it  costs 
so  much  to  live  in  a  city.  And  the  city  is  not  very  whole¬ 
some  or  comfortable.  Indeed,  it  is  never  finished. 

Such  of  these  things  as  belong  to  starting  our  town  can 
be  done  for  a  small  fraction  of  what  they  cost  in  a  city.  We 
shall  do  them  beforehand,  and  put  the  cost  of  doing  them 
into  the  price  of  the  property.  What  we  do  will  never  have 
to  be  done  again,  because  we  shall  do  it  right. 

The  things  Mr.  McMurtry  proposed  to  start  with 
were ; 

A  site  of  natural  health  and  wealth  and  beauty;  drained; 
graded;  flat  but  convenient;  good  roads  and  walks,  not  in 
squares  but  according  to  the  lay  of  the  land ;  such  water  as 
flows  from  mountain  springs  brought  into  houses;  sewers; 
expanse  of  grass;  trees;  outlook;  modern  above  and  below 
ground ;  electric  lights,  telegraph,  telephone.  Every  man  to 
choose  his  part  with  the  means  at  hand  of  supporting  that 
part;  the  people  to  own  their  houses  and  control  their  pur¬ 
suits.  The  means  of  health  and  enjoyment  of  life  within 
reach  of  all  inhabitants.  Liquor  not  to  be  sold  there. 

IVe  intend  to  make  a  better  town  than  there  is  in  the 
world  for  physical  health  and  comfort . 

It  was  in  June,  1896,  that  Mr.  McMurtry, 
through  the  land  company  which  had  been  formed 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  149 


to  take  over  the  new  town  ( Vandergrift  it  was  called 
in  honour  of  the  leading  stockholder  in  the  mills), 
announced  that  lots  were  for  sale.  “  We  are  ready 
to  sell  lots.  Have  waited  until  the  place  is  entirely 
ready.  Now  you  can  judge  its  value  and  buy  in¬ 
telligently.” 

There  were  814  lots  in  the  place,  of  which  200 
were  saved  for  business  purposes.  The  first  week 
276  were  taken  by  mill  men,  indeed  none  but  mill 
men  were  given  a  chance  to  buy  at  the  opening. 
Speculators  came,  but  there  was  nothing  for  them 
and  they  went  away  jeering.  They  have  never  been 
back.  There  has  never  been  anything  for  them  to 
play  with. 

Building  began  immediately,  a  building  and  loan 
company  serving  the  men.  To-day  Vandergrift  has 
a  population  of  about  forty-five  hundred  people, 
most  of  them  living  in  their  own  homes.  These 
homes  cost,  lot  and  house,  from  $1,800  to  $7,500 
each,  though  the  latter  figure  is  exceptional.  I 
should  say  that  the  average  present  value  of  the 
five  to  six  hundred  homes  was  about  $2,500.  The 
building  company  will  tell  you  that  it  has  never 
been  forced  to  foreclose  on  a  piece  of  property  in 
the  town  and  that  never  but  in  one  case  has  it  lost 
money. 

Now,  of  course,  this  means  high  pay.  The 
wages  of  the  skilled  men  who  own  the  homes  in 
Vandergrift  are  as  high  as  ten  dollars  a  day.  There 
are  rollers  who  make  twelve  dollars  and  fifteen  dol¬ 
lars  a  day.  That  is,  the  town  is  not  for  the  hun- 


150 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


dreds  of  unskilled  labourers  without  whom  the  plant 
could  not  operate.  These  unskilled  labourers  are 
and  always  have  been  foreigners,  many  of  them 
speaking  no  English  and  poorly  understanding 
American  ideas.  Poorly  provided  for  in  the  origi¬ 
nal  borough  they  early  began  to  form  settlements  on 
its  outskirts.  One  of  these,  East  Vandergrift,  is 
now  a  town  of  fifteen  hundred  people. 

The  land  company  met  this  need  for  cheaper 
houses  by  opening  a  new  tract,  beautifully  situated 
and  adjoining  the  original  town,  Vandergrift 
Heights.  Here  lots  25  x  200  feet  are  sold  for  $150. 
Five  dollars  down  and  five  dollars  a  month  are  the 
terms.  The  response  to  this  opportunity  was  im¬ 
mediate.  There  are  five  hundred  houses  in  Van¬ 
dergrift  Heights  to-day,  all  but  eight  of  which  were 
built  by  labouring  men  —  a  majority  of  whom  were 
foreign-born  —  and  95  per  cent,  of  which  are  now 
owned  by  them.  The  Heights  was  until  recently  a 
separate  borough  with  schools  and  churches  of  its 
own.  Its  great  ambition  was  to  have  everything 
that  Vandergrift  had.  It  paved  several  streets  and 
was  planning  for  more  when  united  with  the  mother 
town. 

Vandergrift  serves  as  an  object  lesson  to  all  its 
neighbours.  Old  towns  up  and  down  the  river  that 
fifteen  years  ago  wrnuld  have  no  more  considered  lay¬ 
ing  pavements  than  building  an  opera  house  are  now 
taxing  and  straining  to  make  their  streets  like  those 
of  Vandergrift. 

The  remarkable  health  record  of  the  original 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  151 


borough  has  had  a  wholesome  influence.  Typhoid 
fever  has  been  a  terrible  scourge  'in  these  river 
towns.  There  has  never  been  a  case  in  Vander- 
grift  which  was  not  brought  in  from  outside.  In 
five  years  —  1909  to  1913  —  the  deaths  in  Vander¬ 
grift,  with  a  population  of  4,500  were  181.  In 
the  same  period  East  Vandergrift,  with  a  population 
of  1,500  had  138,  more  than  twice  as  many 
proportionally.  Gradually  the  most  ignorant  and 
unbelieving  come  to  recognise  that  good  water, 
sewers,  care  of  garbage,  are  closely  related  to  the 
health  and  happiness  of  themselves  and  families, 
and  they  struggle  for  them. 

It  would  be  difficult  in  the  United  States  to-day 
to  find  a  prettier  town,  greener,  trimmer,  cleaner, 
and  more  influential  than  this  town  of  Vandergrift, 
owned  outright  by  men  who  daily  carry  a  dinner 
pail.  It  is  owned  by  mill  men.  and  governed  by  mill 
men.  Organised  as  a  borough  with  a  burgess  and 
council,  the  majority  of  the  town  government  are 
labourers  in  the  mill.  The  present  burgess  is  a 
roller,  three  of  the  council  out  of  seven  are  rollers 
and  one  is  a  twelve-hour  man.  In  fact,  except  for 
an  occasional  shop-keeper,  the  men  who  work  with 
their  hands  at  the  hardest  of  hard  labour,  making 
sheets  of  iron  and  plates  of  steel  fill  all  the  elective 
positions  of  trust  and  authority.  They  are  in  a 
majority  on  the  council,  the  school  board,  the  health 
board.  They  form  largely  the  official  boards  of 
the  churches.  They  carry  the  collection  plates  on 
Sunday.  They  make  the  society.  I  never  have 


152 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


found  a  community  in  which  the  kind  of  work  a 
man  does  has  apparently  so  little  to  say  about  the 
position  he  holds  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellows. 

I  do  not  mean  to  intimate  that  there  are  no  social 
distinctions.  There  is  a  domestic  service  line  drawn. 
There  is  a  race  line  drawn,  but  there  are  many  cases 
where  character  and  ambition  have  broken  both. 
Nor  do  I  mean  to  intimate  that  the  town  life  is 
particularly  different  from  town  life  everywhere. 
The  inhabitants,  on  the  whole,  seem  to  me  to  accept 
the  exceptional  physical  advantages  they  enjoy  with 
a  normal  amount  of  dissatisfaction,  and  to  be  busy 
with  the  problems  of  improvement  that  live  towns 
the  country  over  are  agitating.  I  found  the  town 
council  two  years  ago  divided  on  the  purchase  of  a 
motor  fire  truck.  The  school  board  was  jeal¬ 
ously  discussing  the  Gary  schools,  and  if  they  could 
or  ought  to  imitate  them.  The  librarian  and  her 
counsellors  were  debating  the  relative  number  of 
works  of  fiction  and  non-fiction  to  buy  with  a  small 
income.  The  women  were  sitting  in  judgment  on 
the  town  fathers,  criticising  their  street-cleaning, 
their  slow  development  of  playgrounds,  their  tolera¬ 
tion  of  pool-rooms. 

The  churches  are  most  aggressive  in  their  attacks 
on  evil-doing,  and  I  certainly  know  of  no  other  town 
in  the  country  where  they  have  such  backing.  There 
are  nine  churches  in  Vandergrift  and  its  suburbs,  a 
population  of  twelve  thousand.  On  a  Sunday  in 
April,  1914,  when  I  looked  over  this  church-going 
crowd  I  found  by  an  official  count  that  fifty-five 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  153 

hundred  out  of  the  twelve  thousand  were  at  the 
morning  services. 

There  are  the  same  keen  political  differences  as 
everywhere.  Naturally  Republican,  it  became 
Progressive  in  1912  and  the  pendulum  has  not  yet 
swung  entirely  back.  There  are  a  few  Socialists. 

The  “cost  of  living”  is  a  perennial  subject  of 
discussion,  as  everywhere.  My  own  conclusion 
from  considerable  close  questioning  was  that  of  an 
intelligent  housewife,  who  declared  that  Vandergrift 
was  about  five  per  cent,  dearer  than  the  neighbour¬ 
ing  towns  and  six  per  cent,  cheaper  than  Pittsburgh. 
That  is,  Vandergrift  is  quite  as  human  in  all  its 
wants  and  experiences  as  if  it  were  not  a  “  model 
town,”  a  thing  created,  not  allowed  to  spring  up. 

I  have  heard  people  argue  that  Vandergrift  was 
impractical  for  anything  but  Big  Business.  (There 
seems  to  be  an  impression  that,  since  the  plant  now 
belongs  in  the  American  Sheet  and  Tin  Plate  Com¬ 
pany,  and  that,  since  that  company  is  a  subsidiary 
of  the  Steel  Corporation,  the  town  was  built  by  the 
corporation.)  Vandergrift  is  a  product  of  small 
business.  Its  creator  looked  upon  the  health,  pros¬ 
perity  and  content  of  his  employes  as  a  part  of  his 
stock  in  trade.  In  building  the  new  plant  which 
was  necessary  to  accommodate  his  growing  business, 
he  arranged  for  a  town  with  the  same  care  he  ar¬ 
ranged  for  the  best  machinery.  “  Don’t  imagine 
we’re  going  to  make  it  a  hobby,”  he  wrote  in  one 
of  his  announcements.  “  This  town  belongs  with 
'the  rest  of  our  business  management.  We  shall 


154 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


» 

build  it  in  the  same  spirit  and  with  the  same  re¬ 
sult.” 

Mr.  McMurtry  believed  that  men,  given  an  op¬ 
portunity  to  live  in  a  clean,  healthy,  beautiful  town 
which  gradually  they  could  own  and  govern,  would 
become  a  permanent  group  of  citizens  working  to¬ 
gether  like  other  citizen  bodies.  And  this  has  hap¬ 
pened.  He  believed  this  body  of  labouring  citizens 
would  furnish  a  steady  supply  of  boys  for  the  work 
—  not  manual  labourers,  but  boys  who,  because  of 
their  association,  naturally  would  turn  to  shop  man¬ 
agement,  the  offices,  the  laboratories,  the  sales  de¬ 
partment. 

And  this  is  what  is  happening.  It  looks  very 
much  like  a  self-perpetuating  working  force,  as  all 
forces  are  in  part,  at  least,  if  they  have  real  vitality 
in  them  and  are  working  on  sound  principles.  It 
is  quite  possible  that  the  future  general  superintend¬ 
ent  of  the  works  is  some  lad  in  the  Vandergrift 
schools  who  now  is  counting  the  days  when  he  can 
“  go  to  work.”  Plate-making  is  in  his  blood. 

It  is  for  such  lads  as  this  the  company  watches, 
knowing  well  enough  that  its  future  depends  upon 
the  opening  and  encouragement  it  can  give  to  those 
who  naturally  turn  to  any  one  of  its  operations. 
Vandergrift  is  proud  and  jealous  of  its  boys  and 
girls.  Their  school  records  are  watched  as  specu¬ 
lators  watch  the  markets.  Those  who  go  to  college 
are  looked  upon  to  honour  the  town,  and  some  of 
them  do  it. 

When  Vandergrift  was  taken  over  by  Big  Busi- 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  155 


ness,  there  was  a  fear  in  many  a  heart  that  its 
days  of  independence  were  ovef.  u  It  was  like  a 
funeral,”  a  man  who  had  been  in  the  place  from 
the  start  told  me.  “  We  didn’t  know  what  would 
happen  to  us.” 

What  they  really  feared  they  perhaps  could  not 
have  told.  It  was  the  word  “  monopoly.”  As 
time  has  gone  on  and  they  have  seen  that  the  Steel 
Corporation  was  not  only  preserving  Mr.  Mc- 
Murtry’s  work  and  ideals  but  introducing  some  good 
ideas  of  its  own,  the  confidence  they  gave  him  has 
gradually  been  transferred  to  it. 

It  is  not  humanly  possible  that  a  community 
should  go  through  the  experience  that  Vandergrift 
has  in  the  last  twenty  years  —  the  enthusiasm  of 
its  founding  and  its  success,  the  disappointment  and 
dread  of  amalgamation,  the  struggle  over  unionism 
—  without  scars.  The  important  thing  is  that  it 
has  preserved  its  integrity  and  that  it  believes  in 
its  own  future. 

While  Vandergrift  seems  to  me  the  most  im¬ 
portant  industrial  town  in  America  because  of  the 
sound  principles  on  which  it  was  originally  planned 
and  because  of  the  labour  struggles  it  has  weath¬ 
ered,  there  are  various  other  successful  towns  of 
experience.  The  National  Housing  Association 
has  in  its  files  full  reports  of  these  ventures,  and  it 
is  working  patiently  and  intelligently  to  spread  its 
knowledge  and  its  opinions  in  the  places  where  they 
are  most  needed. 

.  Of  recent  undertakings  there  is  no  doubt  but  that 


156 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Indian  Hill,  founded  by  the  Norton  Company  of 
Worcester,  Massachusetts,  is  the  most  suggestive  and 
promising.  It  is  planned  for  utility,  economy  and 
beauty.  It  will  be  the  most  attractive  town  of  its 
kind  in  the  United  States  if  it  is  carried  out  as  begun. 
One  feature  which  is  particularly  valuable  is  the 
arrangement  for  taking  care  of  boarders,  houses  in 
which  a  family  has  its  own  private  quarters  but 
which  can  serve  men  in  a  dining-room  of  their  own 
and  furnish  rooms  entirely  cut  off  from  the  family. 
In  the  interests  of  privacy,  decency  and  dignity  this 
kind  of  building  should  be  encouraged  in  every  in¬ 
dustrial  centre. 

The  Norton  Company  has  an  original  plan  of 
financing  Indian  Hill.  It  requires  from  the  pur¬ 
chaser  an  initial  payment  of  ten  per  cent,  of  the 
purchase  price.  For  the  balance  he  gives  two  notes, 
one  for  $1000  payable  in  twelve  years  at  5  per 
cent.,  and  another  for  the  balance  payable  on  de¬ 
mand  with  interest  at  5  per  cent.,  both  notes  being 
secured  by  a  purchase  money  mortgage  to  the  com¬ 
pany. 

The  purchaser  gives  also  a  supplementary  agree¬ 
ment  to  the  effect  that  he  will  purchase  five  shares 
in  the  co-operative  bank  conducted  by  the  company 
for  some  years,  and  will  continue  payments  thereon 
until  his  deposits  shall  have  matured  in  the  sum 
of  $1000,  which  in  local  banks,  at  the  prevailing 
rate  of  interest,  takes  place  in  about  eleven  years 
and  ten  months.  This  insures  the  payment  of  the 
twelve-year  note  according  to  its  terms.  The 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  157 


theory  of  this  arrangement  is  that  it  gives  the  pur¬ 
chaser  a  feeling  of  independence,  inasmuch  as  he 
does  not  make  periodical  payments  on  the  prin¬ 
cipal,  and  forces  him  to  become  acquainted  with  co¬ 
operative  bank  methods,  with  the  possibility  that 
he  may  become  more  thrifty  and  use  the  bank  even 
when  not  required  to  do  so. 

In  consideration  of  this  agreement,  the  company 
agree  not  to  make  demand  upon  the  demand  note  so 
long  as  the  purchaser  shall  continue  to  make  monthly 
payments  of  interest  and  monthly  payments  to  the 
co-operative  bank.  They  further  agree  that  if  the 
purchaser  shall  die  or  become  incapacitated  within 
twelve  years  —  provided  that  at  the  time  he  shall 
not  be  over  sixty  years  of  age  —  they  will  accept 
the  surrender  value  of  his  co-operative  bank  shares 
in  full  payment  of  the  time  note.  The  result  of 
this  agreement  is  that  the  purchaser  may  be  assured 
that  at  the  end  of  twelve  years,  or  upon  his  prior 
death,  a  sufficient  proportion  of  the  purchase  price 
will  have  been  paid  so  that  he  or  his  estate  will  then 
own  the  property  free  of  all  incumbrances  except  a 
first  mortgage  for  not  over  sixty  per  cent,  of  the 
value  of  the  property,  so  that  at  his  option  or  their 
own  he  may  resort  to  a  bank  for  a  mortgage  and  be 
entirely  independent  of  the  company. 

In  the  case  of  a  few  of  the  higher  priced  houses 
the  carrying  out  of  this  arrangement  does  not  re¬ 
duce  the  purchase  price  to  a  point  where  a  bank 
mortgage  could  be  secured  to  take  care  of  the  bal¬ 
ance,  but  such  houses  are  sold  to  men  of  higher  earn- 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


158 

ing  power  who  may  be  expected  to  make  payments 
on  the  purchase  price  in  excess  of  their  obligations, 
which  will  enable  them  to  be  independent  of  the  com¬ 
pany  at  the  end  of  twelve  years. 

Here  is  a  form  given  by  the  company  to  a  pur¬ 
chaser  showing  the  actual  operation  of  the  plan: 


Your  total  purchase  price  is . $3,851.50 

You  have  made  a  first  payment  of  10% .  385.15 

You  are  borrowing  on  mortgage  the  balance .  3,466.35 

The  amount  due  in  12  years,  secured  by  time  note, 

is  .  1,000.00 

The  balance  secured  by  demand  note  is .  2,466.35 


Your  monthly  interest  during  first  12  years  will  be  14.45 
Your  monthly  payment  to  co-operative  bank  will  be  5.00 

Your  total  monthly  payments  during  first  12  years  19.45 
Your  monthly  interest  payment  after  12  years  will 

be .  10.30 

Total  loan. .  .$3,466.35  Demand  loan. $2, 466.35 

5%  .  173.32  5%  .  123.32 

Vi2  .  14-45  Yi  2  10-30 

The  purchase  price  represents  the  actual  cost  of 
the  house  and  land  without  profit.  The  original 
purchase  price  of  the  entire  area  was  divided  by  the 
number  of  feet  in  the  tract  to  determine  the  base 
price  per  foot.  To  this  was  added  a  pro-rata  pro¬ 
portion  of  the  cost  of  improvements  such  as 
sewers,  highways,  sidewalks,  engineering  expense 
and  architect’s  fees. 

In  the  case  illustrated  the  cost  of  the  land  was 
$685  for  a  lot  containing  6850  square  feet.  To 
this  figure  was  added  the  actual  price  of  the  house, 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  159 


without  profit.  This  included  the  expense  of  the 
building,  heating,  lighting,  plumbing,  piping,  hard¬ 
ware,  fixtures,  papering,  window  shades,  screens, 
concrete  cellar  floor,  granolithic  walks,  rough  grad¬ 
ing,  finish  grading,  planting  and  clothes  reel. 

The  difficulty  with  such  towns  as  Vandergrift  and 
Indian  Hill,  and  indeed  most  of  our  industrial  cen¬ 
tres,  is  that  they  meet  the  needs  of  only  the  highly 
paid  workmen.  Gary,  Indiana,  for  instance,  much 
as  it  has  done,  has  flatly  failed  to  provide  for  the 
unskilled  labourers,  of  which  it  has  great  numbers. 
The  result  there  has  been  the  deplorable  “  Patch.” 
What  Gary  and  all  of  these  towns  need  is  houses 
that  will  rent  for  from  $12  to  $15  a  month,  that  is, 
be  within  the  reach  of  the  $2  a  day  man. 

The  difficulty  in  providing  such  houses  is  that  we 
have  not  yet  standardised  building  materials  and 
building  plans.  Practically  everything  else  that 
men  and  women  need  has  been  so  standardised  that 
a  solid,  good-looking  article  is  available,  at  a  stand¬ 
ard  price.  The  workman  is  not  obliged  to  have  his 
shoes,  his  coat,  his  shirts  or  his  automobile  made  to 
order.  When  it  comes  to  building  a  house  for  him, 
or  when  he  comes  to  build  a  house,  he  has  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  the  custom-made  thing. 

One  of  the  gravest  problems  of  those  interested 
in  housing  has  long  been  how  to  overcome  this  ex¬ 
travagance,  to  secure  standard  materials  which  could 
be  used  in  making  standard  houses;  not  that  the 
houses  should  all  look  alike,  but  the  core  and  es¬ 
sentials  would  be  the  same,  differing  only  in  details. 


i6o 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


This  important  problem  has  been  practically  solved, 
by  one  of  the  younger  architects  of  New  York, 
Mr.  Grosvenor  Atterbury  to  whom  we  owe  the  in¬ 
telligent  planning  of  Indian  Hill.  For  at  least  ten 
years  Mr.  Atterbury  has  been  experimenting  in 
economic  concrete  construction,  his  aim  being  to 
work  out  building  sections  of  such  form  and  size  that 
a  house  could  be  assembled  like  a  machine.  That 
this  is  possible  Mr.  Atterbury  has  proved  beyond 
question  in  his  experiments  conducted  at  Forest 
Hills,  Long  Island,  for  the  Russell  Sage  Founda¬ 
tion.  The  big,  perfectly-fitted  blocks  he  makes  are 
put  into  place  as  simply  and  easily  as  a  child  builds 
a  house  with  blocks;  and  when  they  are  together, 
they  are  there  to  stay.  It  is  an  absolutely  dry,  fire¬ 
proof  permanent  structure.  The  houses,  as  so  far 
planned,  show  not  only  ingenuity  in  arrangement,  but 
admirable  taste  in  treatment.  Mr.  Atterbury  has 
worked  out  a  variety  of  treatment  of  surfaces  and 
many  interesting  and  appropriate  details  by  which 
the  houses  can  be  made  individual  and  attractive. 
The  results  of  his  long,  devoted,  even  loving  experi¬ 
ments  do  more  toward  solving  what  we  call  the 
housing  problem  than  anything  else  of  which  I  know. 
What  Mr.  Atterbury  has  done  is  best  told  in  a  letter 
from  which  I  am  allowed  to  quote : 

As  a  result  of  a  good  many  years’  study  of  the  housing 
problem  from  various  points  of  view,  I  am  fully  convinced 
that  the  crux  of  the  problem  is  not  in  a  sub-division  of  the 
land  or  in  the  field  of  economic  administration  and  taxa- 


GOOD  HOMES  MAKE  GOOD  WORKERS  161 


tion,  but  in  the  cost  of  construction;  and  that  to-day  the 
poorer  the  man,  the  greater  is  the  proportion  of  his  income 
that  goes  into  the  construction  cost,  and  the  less  is  the  real 
economy  with  which  it  is  spent.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that 
scientific  and  co-operative  principles  have  been  practically 
applied  to  the  production  of  almost  every  other  item  in  the 
poor  man’s  living  account,  but  the  second  largest  single 
one  —  that  of  his  housing.  His  bread,  his  clothing  and  his 
watch  are  factory  products,  largely  guaranteed  —  sometimes 
by  government.  His  house  is  usually  “  custom-made,”  and 
bought  at  the  mercy  of  a  speculative  builder,  subject  to  his 
guarantee. 

We  have  been  working  for  the  past  six  or  eight  years  on 
the  idea  of  standardised  dwellings.  What  we  are  trying 
to  produce  is  not  only  obvious  economy  in  material  struc¬ 
ture,  but  also  in  skilled  expert  service  —  such  as  is  avail¬ 
able  now  only  to  the  rich  man  in  the  building  of  his  home. 
The  scheme,  of  course,  is  to  do  for  the  labouring  man’s 
house  what  Ford  has  done  for  the  automobile,  with  certain 
additional  conceptions  relative  to  educational,  hygienic  and 
esthetic  purposes.  We  set  out  without  any  prejudice  in 
favour  of  any  system  or  material,  but  with  a  programme 
based  on  the  theory  of  standardisation,  replication,  shop 
manufacture,  elimination  and  combination  of  processes,  the 
substitution  of  power  and  machinery  for  hand  labour,  and, 
by  no  means  least,  the  mutual  co-ordination  of  design  and 
construction.  While  in  one  sense  we  have  only  scratched 
the  surface  of  the  problem,  in  another  sense  we  have  passed 
the  experimental  stage  and  I  think  are  ready  for  commer¬ 
cial  development.  On  the  other  hand,  the  opportunity 
would  be  largely  neglected  if  such  development  were  car¬ 
ried  on  for  merely  commercial  reasons  and  purposes.  While 
to  be  successful  it  must  be  commercial,  and  while  I  believe 


162 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


it  can  be  made  to  pay  —  not  only  as  a  benefit  to  the  labour¬ 
ing  man,  but  equally  to  the  employers  of  labour  who  must 
from  now  on  take  serious  consideration  of  the  housing  prob¬ 
lem,  it  ought,  for  obvious  reasons,  to  be  conducted  by  some 
agency  or  group  that  would  continue  the  study  and  develop¬ 
ment  of  its  possibilities  on  a  large  scale  and  with  the  most 
skilled  advice  and  expert  services. 


CHAPTER  VII 

A  man’s  HOURS 

One  note-worthy  and  heartening  by-product  of 
these  various  efforts  to  improve  industrial  conditions 
has  been  the  backing  they  have  given  to  the  old 
struggle  for  a  shorter  day.  Instead  of  taking  at¬ 
tention  from  it,  they  have  emphasised  its  importance. 
When  safety,  health  and  sobriety  become  the  aim 
of  management,  everything  which  affects  them  is 
studied.  The  relation  of  the  hours  a  man  works 
to  his  efficiency  and  stability  is  receiving  more  and 
more  attention  from  the  new  industrial  manage¬ 
ment. 

One  may  well  ask  as  he  watches  the  tide  of  men 
and  women  pour  out  at  night  if  it  is  possible  to  do 
the  work  of  the  world  and  keep  the  workers  healthy, 
and  as  contented  as  it  is  in  men  to  be?  Dropping 
out  of  account  those  who  are  not  happy  because  they 
resent  labour  and  want  idleness  —  and  there  are 
such  —  what  is  the  matter  that  men  do  not  thrive 
under  labour?  Is  there  something  needfully  evil 
and  killing  in  it?  Is  labour  a  curse?  Those  who 
think  so  know  not  the  worker.  There  is  no  task  of 
earth  some  do  not  find  good.  Those  who  talk  of 
the  mine,  the  mill,  the  factory  as  if  they  were  inher¬ 
ently  inhuman  and  horrible  are  those  who  never  have 

163 


164 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


known  the  miner,  the  weaver,  or  the  steel  or  iron 
worker. 

In  the  first-aid  room  of  a  cotton  factory  a  tale  was 
once  told  me  of  an  operative  who  had  died  after 
working  in  the  place  for  thirty  years  or  more.  At 
the  time  she  had  gone  to  work  for  the  firm  the  fac¬ 
tory  stood  on  the  West  Side  of  New  York.  The 
town  had  closed  in  on  it,  and  in  the  90’s  it  was  moved 
to  New  Jersey.  With  it  went  scores  of  the  oper¬ 
atives  and  their  families.  But  this  one  woman 
would  not  leave  the  city.  Nor  would  she  give  up 
the  factory.  It  was  her  factory!  For  twelve  years 
she  commuted.  She  was  always  on  time,  always  the 
last  to  leave. 

She  wore  out  at  last.  The  company  tried  to  per¬ 
suade  her  to  move  to  a  nearby  hospital  where  she 
could  be  better  cared  for,  but  the  hold  of  her  little 
home  was  upon  her.  All  that  she  would  consent  to 
was  a  weekly  visit  from  the  factory  nurse,  and  that 
was  because  she  wanted  the  daily  news  of  her  old 
associates.  This  woman  loved  her  work,  loved  her 
loom,  the  whir  of  it,  the  smell  and  feel  of  things. 

In  a  great  manufacturing  plant  in  the  West  a  lit¬ 
tle  old  man  was  pointed  out  to  me.  “  He  is  rich,” 
they  said.  “  A  year  ago  he  inherited  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars;  but  he  has  rarely  missed  a  day  at 
his  lathe  since.  Perhaps  he  is  a  little  more  cocky 
than  he  used  to  be,  talks  a  little  more,  but  we  could 
not  drive  him  from  the  shop.  He  loves  his  lathe, 
loves  the  place.  He  will  stay  here  as  long  as  he 
lives.” 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


165 


There  are  men  who  love  the  mines,  and  who  go 
down  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth  with  something  of 
the  spirit  that  men  go  into  battle.'  There  is  no 
labour  so  dangerous,  so  full  of  hardships,  so  marked 
by  brutal  conditions  as  that  of  the  sailor;  but  who 
can  detach  a  sailor  from  his  ship?  No  matter  what 
the  labour,  there  are  always  those  who  go  back  to  it 
from  sheer  homesickness  — “  Trade  nostalgia.” 

An  outsider  can  understand  this  only  by  famil¬ 
iarising  himself  with  labour  and  labourers.  When 
one  walks  long  enough  through  great  shops  where 
black  machines  rise  on  every  hand,  huge  cranes  move 
up  and  down,  smoke,  flame  and  showers  of  sparks  fill 
the  air,  where  the  walls  resound  with  clanging,  hiss¬ 
ing  and  hammering;  when  he  watches  the  men  mov¬ 
ing  steadily  and  naturally  in  this  world  of  strange 
operations  and  mighty  forces,  he  comes  sooner  or 
later  to  a  sense  of  the  dignity  of  the  thing,  its  mean¬ 
ing  and  power. 

He  sees  that  this  is  an  army,  moving  in  orderly, 
ordered  ways,  where  every  man  is  dependent  on 
every  other  man,  and  where  the  perfection  of 
the  final  results  is  the  care  of  all.  And  they  know 
it.  The  spirit  of  the  whole  animates  them.  You 
get  a  sense  of  your  own  relative  insignificance,  their 
sheer  usefulness.  They  make  things  men  must 
have.  It  is  like  the  worthiness  one  feels  in  farm- 
ing. 

This  is  as  it  should  be,  and  what  it  is  for  many. 
Why,  then  is  it  not  so  for  all  of  those  who  come  to  it 
with  courageous  minds  and  who  accept  reverently 


i66 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  law  that  men  must  earn  bread  for  themselves 
and  for  those  who  are  dependent  upon  them?  It  is 
not  the  painful  efforts,  the  dangers,  or  even  the  evil 
conditions  which  do  most  to  make  labour  unendur¬ 
able  for  those  who  are  in  normal  condition.  The 
one  thing  above  all  others  that  takes  the  heart  out 
of  it  and  leaves  the  worker  without  appetite  or  zest 
for  its  excitements  and  its  meaning  is  the  long  day. 

Men  and  women  come  in  the  morning  to  their 
tasks  with  a  spring  of  fresh  energy  within  them. 
Little  by  little  during  the  hours  of  labour  they 
empty  that  spring.  When  it  is  dry  they  must  draw 
from  forces  which  should  be  untouched.  By  some 
strange  chemistry  which  no  one  understands  too  well, 
these  intrusions  on  the  physical  forces  which  should 
be  inviolate  produce  in  the  human  system  a  true  toxic 
condition  —  fatigue  poison,  auto-poison  the  scien¬ 
tists  call  it. 

If  this  fatigue  poison  passes  a  point  where  the 
period  of  rest  following  is  not  equal  to  the  task  of 
throwing  it  off  and  filling  afresh  the  spring  of  en¬ 
ergy,  the  man  goes  back  to  his  toil  a  little  unfit;  the 
longer  he  goes  on  the  more  unfit  he  becomes. 
Slowly  the  poison  invades  his  system.  The  repair¬ 
ing  forces  —  food,  relaxation,  pleasure  and  sleep  — 
becomes  less  and  less  equal  to  the  task.  The  man 
becomes  more  and  more  open  to  the  attack  of  dis¬ 
ease;  less  and  less  able  to  do  his  work;  unfit  to  im¬ 
prove  upon  it;  unable  to  grow.  He  is  an  unsafe 
man,  too,  one  not  to  be  trusted  among  machines  or 
in  dangerous  places.  The  man  has  been  poisoned 


A  MAN’S  HOURS  167 

into  unfitness  by  the  slow  accumulation  of  fatigue 
poison  which  he  could  not  throw  off. 

It  was  not  work  which  did  this.  It  was  too  much 
work.  He  needed  the  work  to  keep  him  fit.  With¬ 
out  it  or  its  equivalent,  a  regular  physical  exercise, 
his  spring  of  energy  would  have  as  surely  deterior¬ 
ated  as  it  did  from  overwork.  The  spring  of  energy 
standing  idle  would  have  soured  within  him. 

It  has  taken  years  of  observation  and  experiment 
to  establish  with  anything  like  scientific  accuracy  the 
baneful  effects  on  the  labourer  and  his  product  of  the 
too  long  day.  This  has  been  done  finally  with  a 
completeness  which  even  the  courts  are  recognising. 
Moreover,  in  establishing  these  facts  there  have  been 
discoveries  made  of  the  effects  of  the  shorter  day 
which  have  been  as  heartening  as  they  have  been  sur¬ 
prising.  They  are  discoveries  which  upset  all  the 
old  theories  about  hours. 

Briefly  put  they  amount  to  this:  An  eight-hour 
day  in  a  properly  managed  shop  yields  as  large  a 
quantity  of  work  as  a  ten-hour  day,  and  cuts  out  al¬ 
most  entirely  certain  irritations  and  interruptions 
which  always  have  characterised  the  longer  work 
period.  As  for  labour,  it  has  become  an  axiom  in 
its  circle  that  “  shortening  the  day  increases  the  pay.” 
There  is  many  a  manufacturer  that  will  tell  you  that 
shortening  the  day  increases  the  profits. 

Many  are  the  influences  which  have  led  to  the  ex¬ 
periments  with  the  shorter  days.  Most  frequently 
it  has  undoubtedly  been  the  plea  and  pressure  of 
labour,  organised  and  unorganised.  Take  the  ex- 


i68 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


perience  of  the  granite  cutters  of  the  United  States: 
since  1820  they  have  been  steadily  at  the  problem  of 
securing  shorter  hours  for  their  trade,  and  always 
their  claim  has  been  that  they  could  do  as  much  and 
better  work  in  shorter  hours. 

Experience  has  proved  they  were  right.  The  first 
cut  was  from  twelve  to  ten,  and  the  output  was  not 
reduced.  In  1890  the  ten  hours  were  reduced  to 
nine,  and  again  the  output  wTas  not  reduced.  In 
1900  the  granite  cutters  secured  an  eight-hour  day 
for  the  entire  trade.  James  Duncan,  the  president 
of  the  association,  claims,  with  every  show  of  being 
right,  that  the  members  of  the  association  are  doing 
excellent  work  and  as  much  of  it  as  when  they  were 
working  nine  and  ten  hours.  “  They  are  working 
steadier,”  he  says,  u  and  Blue  Monday  is  now  un¬ 
known  in  our  trade.  They  are  more  attentive,  more 
in  earnest.” 

The  effect  on  the  lives  of  the  men,  Mr.  Duncan 
claims  has  been  almost  everywhere  marked: 

They  seek  new  entertainment,  they  are  in  evidence  in 
drawing  and  modelling  schools  in  the  evenings  of  the  winter 
season,  and  conspicuous  in  athletics  in  summer.  Some  of 
our  members  have  developed  into  great  baseball  stars  in  the 
major  leagues.  Boating,  swimming,  long  rural  walks,  bi¬ 
cycle  riding,  and  occasionally  a  week  of  vacation  are  in  evi¬ 
dence.  Homes  are  happier  and  our  members  and  those  de¬ 
pendent  upon  them  and  associated  with  them  are  better  fed, 
and  better  clad  than  at  any  time  in  our  trade  history. 

Mr.  Duncan  claims  that  the  granite  cutters  give  a 
full  eight  hours,  that  is,  they  do  not  arrive  at  8,  and 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


169 


take  the  first  half  hour  to  get  into  their  working 
clothes  and  gather  up  their  tools,  nor  do  they  stop  at 
a  quarter  or  half  an  hour  before  closing  time  to  get 
ready  to  leave.  “  Our  constitutional  regulations 
and  the  terms  of  our  agreement,”  he  writes,  “  pro¬ 
vide  and  require  that  our  members  work  eight  hours 
five  days  of  the  week  and  four  hours  on  Saturday. 
Employers  invariably  require  our  members  to  work 
‘  from  whistle  to  whistle  !  ’  There  are  no  complaints 
or  contentions  upon  that  subject,  as  our  members 
recognise  the  necessity  of  being  at  their  work 
promptly  at  the  time  the  whistle  blows,  and  they 
equally  remain  at  work  until  the  same  whistle  an¬ 
nounces  the  quitting  hour. 

“  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  where  there  is  slackness 
in  respecting  the  starting  and  quitting  hour  it  is 
because  that  shortcoming  has  been  worked  into 
the  practice  through  carelessness  both  on  the  part 
of  the  worker  and  the  employer,  and  if  nipped  in 
the  bud,  as  the  saying  goes,  would  not  have  oc¬ 
curred.” 

As  for  the  employers,  I  know  of  one  who  has  been 
long  in  the  granite  business  who  has  been  so  im¬ 
pressed  with  the  benefits  of  an  eight-hour  day  that  he 
has  been  experimenting  with  seven  hours  !  This  em¬ 
ployer,  William  J.  Cranford  of  Buffalo,  New  York, 
put  his  theory  and  experience  with  hours  Into  a  letter 
voluntarily  written  to  Mr.  Duncan  in  1912  and  pub¬ 
lished  later  in  The  Granite  Cutters’  Journal.  In 
this  letter  he  says : 


170 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


There  are  few  firms  in  the  country  who  have  kept  a  com¬ 
prehensive  cost  system  extending  over  a  period  of  more  than 
thirty  years.  Just  thirty-two  years  ago  in  January,  1880,  we 
commenced  to  keep  this  record  of  the  value  of  each  man 
and  the  exact  cost  of  each  piece  of  work,  and  we  have  kept 
this  ever  since.  In  the  part  of  this  work  which  will  in¬ 
terest  you  we  have  a  page  for  each  granite  cutter,  and  fol¬ 
lowing  each  entry  of  the  piece  of  work  he  takes  up  is  the 
day  and  hour  commenced,  the  day  and  hour  finished,  the 
entire  time  consumed,  the  wages  we  have  paid,  the  quarry 
bill,  and  a  column  for  loss  and  a  column  for  gain.  In  this 
way  we  are  able  to  raise  a  man’s  wages  from  time  to  time 
as  he  proves  his  worth.  We  do  this  without  request  from 
the  men,  and  in  this  way  we  obtain  the  highest  efficiency, 
and  we  cannot  remember  when  a  man  asked  us  to  raise  his 
wages. 

This  cost  system  extends  back  to  the  time  when  the  day 
was  ten  hours,  and  it  shows  that  the  same  man  under  iden¬ 
tically  the  same  conditions,  accomplished  more,  of  exactly 
the  same  kind  of  work  when  he  was  working  nine  hours, 
than  he  did  when  he  was  working  ten  hours,  and  again 
when  the  hours  were  reduced  to  eight  hours  this  same  man 
accomplished  still  more  in  an  eight  hour  day  than  he  did 
in  a  nine  hour  day,  or  a  considerable  amount  more  than  he 
did  when  the  day  was  ten  hours  long. 

My  observation  of  the  conditions,  and  I  am  with  our  men 
from  8  A.  M.  until  5  P.  M.,  is  this,  that  as  men  work  to-day 
at  the  granite  cutting  trade,  an  eight  hour  day  is  too  long, 
and  I  believe  that  any  good  granite  cutter  (and  I  mean  by 
this  a  man  who  uses  his  brains  as  well  as  his  muscles  every 
minute)  could  do  just  as  much  work  in  seven  or  even  six 
hours  as  he  does  in  eight.  This  may  sound  radical,  but 
from  close  study  I  find  that  sixteen  hours  for  “  rest  and 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


171 


refreshment  ”  to  a  granite  cutter  is  not  sufficient  to  make 
him  approach  his  work  in  the  morning  in  a  perfectly  rested 
condition. 

We  are  glad  to  watch  the  efforts  of  a  Matthewson,  John¬ 
son,  Joe  Wood  or  any  of  the  other  star  pitchers,  and  we 
would  think  McGraw,  Griffith  or  Stahl  beside  themselves  to 
put  any  one  of  these  men  in  the  box  for  two  consecutive 
days,  of  about  two  hours  each  day.  Now  what  granite 
cutter  does  not  put  as  much  of  his  brains  and  muscles 
into  his  work  every  day  as  these  stars  exercise?  The 
shrewd  manager  knows  he  can  get  the  best  results  from 
a  man  whose  brain  and  body  are  not  fatigued.  We  em¬ 
ployers  of  granite  cutters  can  learn  a  lesson  from  them. 
Once  in  a  while  there  is  an  Edison  who  can  work  long 
hours  profitably;  but  they  are  conspicuous  by  their  rarity. 
The  short  life  of  the  granite  cutters  is  due  not  to 
the  dust  alone,  but  to  the  hard  work  incident  to  the 
trade. 

Again,  what  are  the  hours  of  the  men  whose  salaries  soar 
into  the  five  figure  mark?  Few,  if  any,  are  at  their  office 
more  than  four  hours  each  day. 

Let  the  union  and  the  employers  get  together  on  this 
question.  I  am  going  to  try  this  experiment  on  one  man 
in  the  near  future.  I  am  going  to  tell  him  that  I  have  his 
record  for  the  past  year,  we  will  say,  at  eight  hours,  and  I 
am  going  to  pay  him  the  same  wages  for  a  month  or  six 
weeks,  and  wish  him  to  commence  at  8:30  instead  of  8:00, 
and  quit  at  4 :30  instead  of  5  :oo,  and  I  do  not  wish  him  to 
exert  himself  one  whit  more  than  before,  and  I  will  give 
you  the  record  of  the  result. 

Six  months  later  Mr.  Crawford  wrote  Mr.  Dun¬ 


can: 


172 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


I  must  write  to  tell  you  about  the  result  of  the  experiment 
of  the  seven-hour  day. 

The  man  who  worked  for  six  weeks,  seven  hours  a  day, 
for  eight  hours’  pay,  accomplished  more  than  he  had  ever 
done  before.  An  increase  of  from  three  to  twelve  per  cent., 
according  to  the  kind  of  work  he  was  cutting.  This  he  says 
he  did  without  expending  any  more  effort  than  when  work¬ 
ing  eight  hours,  so  this  proves,  to  my  satisfaction,  at  least, 
the  contention  I  made  in  my  letter  of  December  last,  namely, 
that  any  good  granite  cutter  could  do  more  in  seven  than  in 
eight  hours. 

It  should  be  said  for  those  who  claim  that  the  pub¬ 
lic  pays  for  the  shorter  day  in  increased  cost  of 
product,  that  it  has  not  proved  so  in  the  case  of 
granite  cutting.  That  is,  the  finished  product  has 
not  increased  in  price  to  the  consumer.  Improved 
tools  and  methods  have  had  something  to  do  with 
this,  to  be  sure.  That  is,  it  has  not  always  been  due 
to  increased  labour  efficiency. 

The  experiments  with  shorter  hours  have  by  no 
means  always  been  made  under  the  pressure  of  the 
trade  unions.  Frequently  they  have  been  initiated 
by  employers  who  suspected  that  long  hours  meant 
higher  labour  cost. 

It  wras  this  theory  that  as  long  ago  as  1890  led  to 
an  experiment  in  hours  in  the  plant  which  later  be¬ 
came  the  centre  of  the  interesting  industrial  town  of 
Vandergrift.  George  G.  McMurtry,  the  president 
and  head  of  the  concern,  was  running  the  plant  on  a 
ten-hour  day,  and  watching  his  men.  He  became 
convinced  finally  that,  as  he  puts  it,  they  “  pumped 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


•173 


themselves  out  in  eight  hours.”  Any  labour  done 
beyond  that  time  he  believed  was  done  at  the  risk  of 
accident  and  of  spoiled  product.  Moreover,  men 
working  ten  hours  a  day  could  not  use  the  machinery 
at  its  full  capacity.  He  therefore  introduced  the 
eight-hour  shift  in  a  large  percentage  of  his  opera¬ 
tions.  The  result  was  entirely  satisfactory.  He 
saved  his  men.  They  had  time  to  recuperate  and 
came  back  able  to  keep  their  machines  up  to  their 
work,  that  is,  in  eight  hours  they  actually  made  the 
machines  do  what  they  could  not  make  them  do  in 
ten!  They  worked  to  the  tune  of  “‘Yankee 
Doodle,’  Mr.  McMurtry  says,  “  not  to  that  of  ‘  Old 
Hundred.’  ” 

At  the  same  time,  and  entirely  for  economic 
reasons,  Mr.  McMurtry  put  an  end  to  Sunday  work 
in  his  plant.  It  didn’t  pay.  “  Sunday  work  is  the 
most  expensive  work  there  is,  for  entirely  human 
reasons.  The  men  do  what  you  and  I  would  do. 
They  ‘  nurse  soft  jobs  ’  for  Sunday.  Moreover,  as 
superintendents  and  foremen  go  to  church  on  Sun¬ 
day  as  a  rule  or  at  least  are  ‘  off,’  there  is  much  less 
supervision.  Work  is  not  in  the  air.  The  men  stay 
and  are  paid,  but  they  never  work  as  on  other  days.” 
It  was  this  sensible  observation  which  put  an  end  to 
the  Sunday  labour  in  Mr.  McMurtry’s  plant. 

A  class  of  steel  and  iron  workers,  which  even  en¬ 
lightened  and  experimenting  employers  like  Mr. 
McMurtry  have  generally  contended  could  not,  with¬ 
out  too  great  loss,  be  subjected  to  an  eight-hour  rule, 
is  that  of  the  furnace  men  in  steel  and  iron  foundries 


174 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


and  mills.  This  argument  is  based  on  the  irregular 
character  of  their  labour  —  twenty  to  thirty  min¬ 
utes  of  intense,  exhausting  effort  alternating  with 
equal  rest  periods.  That  they  do  not  work  over  six 
hours  out  of  a  twelve-hours  shift  is  probably  true. 
“  Hence,”  argue  the  employers,  “  we  cannot  afford 
a  shorter  shift.”  It  is  this  contention  which  is  pre¬ 
serving  twelve-hour  work  to-day  in  the  Steel  Cor¬ 
poration. 

There  is  at  least  one  independent  steel  plant  in  the 
country  which  has  proved  that  the  eight-hour  shift 
for  furnace  and  boiler  men  actually  pays.  This  is 
the  Commonwealth  Steel  Plant  of  Granite  City,  Illi¬ 
nois,  the  plant  whose  president,  Mr.  Clarence  How¬ 
ard,  openly  declares  that  the  Golden  Rule  is  the  only 
infallible  business  guide  we  possess. 

Several  years  ago  the  Commonwealth  Steel  Com¬ 
pany  decided  that  the  twelve-hour  day  was  not  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  Golden  Rule.  They  were  convinced, 
too,  that  the  changes  could  be  so  made  that  the  busi¬ 
ness  would  not  suffer  —  that  it  might  even  gain. 
The  snag  on  which  the  eight-hour  shift  has  gener¬ 
ally  hung  has  been  the  earnings  of  the  men.  They 
could  not,  it  was  believed,  earn  in  eight  hours  what 
they  had  in  twelve.  Consequently  they  objected  to 
the  shorter  shift.  This  has  been  one  difficulty  with 
abolishing  Sunday  work  in  the  steel  industry. 
When  the  Steel  Corporation  cut  out  Sunday  work, 
several  thousand  men  left,  seeking  places  where  they 
would  have  employment  seven  days  in  the  week. 
They  wanted  the  money  more  than  the  leisure. 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


175 


The  Commonwealth,  then,  made  a  careful  read¬ 
justment  of  wages,  even  the  door  boy  being  included. 
The  increase  ran  from  16  per  cent,  to  22  per  cent, 
an  hour.  No  hint  of  what  was  planning  was  given 
the  crews  until  the  scheme  had  been  matured.  It 
came  to  them  as  a  gift  of  the  gods.  Mr.  R.  A.  Bull 
of  the  company,  who  in  1912  gave  a  full  account  of 
the  experiment  to  the  American  Foundrymen’s  Asso¬ 
ciation,  said  that  there  was  no  talk  of  increased  effi¬ 
ciency,  no  string  to  the  change.  Automatically,  effi¬ 
ciency  did  increase.  An  accurate  and  scientific  rec¬ 
ord  of  the  output  in  the  last  months  before  and  the 
first  months  after  the  twelve-hour  shift  was  turned 
to  one  of  eight  hours,  was  presented  to  the  associa¬ 
tion  by  Mr.  Bull.  The  difference  in  every  impor¬ 
tant  feature  was  in  favour  of  the  shorter  shift.  It 
was  more  economical,  in  spite  of  the  increased  wage, 
and  the  quality  of  the  output  was  improved. 

There  is  no  one  in  the  Commonwealth  Steel  Com¬ 
pany  to-day  that  will  listen  a  moment  to  the  argu¬ 
ment  that  the  “  long  day,”  the  “  tired  hour  ”  pays. 
“  It  can’t  pay,”  they’ll  tell  you.  It  is  contrary  to  the 
Golden  Rule ! 

It  has  not  always  been  the  relation  between  the 
“  tired  hour  ”  and  the  product  that  has  brought  an 
employer  to  a  shorter  day.  Here  is  a  case  in  an  in¬ 
land  factory  employing  some  five  hundred  or  six 
hundred  girls  making  small  cotton  articles;  it  sug¬ 
gests  influences  which  are  constantly  at  work  modi¬ 
fying  relations  and  conditions  in  factories :  the 
owner,  who  was  the  manager,  and  all  his  “  fore- 


176 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ladies  ”  and  foremen,  as  well  as  scores  of  the 
“  girls,”  had  been  working  together  for  possibly 
twenty  years.  There  was  a  great  degree  of  inti¬ 
macy  among  them.  All  of  the  old-timers  called  the 
owner  “  Pete,”  and  discussed  shop  matters  with  him 
on  terms  of  entire  equality  and  mutual  interest. 

For  years  Pete’s  day  was  that  of  the  operatives, 
from  7  A.  M.  to  6  P.  M.,  ten  hours  and  no  Saturday 
half-holiday.  Then  he  became  interested  in  base¬ 
ball,  and  bought  an  automobile.  But  when  you 
work  from  7  A.  M.  to  6  P.  M.  there  is  scant  time  for 
either  games  or  driving.  Pete  tried  to  bring  him¬ 
self  boldly  to  going  oh  Saturday  afternoons,  and  to 
leaving  early  when  the  notion  took  him.  He 
couldn't  do  it  and  be  easy  in  his  mind!  Moreover, 
if  he  did  it,  he  heard  of  it.  “  Fine  to  be  the  boss, 
ain’t  it?  ”  some  operative  who  had  begun  at  the  be¬ 
ginning  and  shared  ups  and  downs  with  steadfast 
pluck  and  sympathy  would  call  when  she  next  saw 
him ! 

Finally  Pete  announced  there  was  to  be  a  Sat¬ 
urday  half-holiday.  They  were  to  make  up  for  it  in 
part.  By  coming  at  6:30  they  could  get  in  three 
hours,  and  he  thought  the  business  could  stand  a  cut 
of  two  hours.  So  they  started  that  scale;  but  the 
girls  didn't  like  the  earlier  hours.  They  were  very 
often  late.  Pete  didn’t  complain,  he  did  not  like 
6:30  himself;  and  in  six  months’  time,  without  any 
discussion  of  the  matter,  everybody  was  coming  in 
at  7  A.  M.,  and  everybody  had  his  Saturday  half- 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


177 


holiday,  which  they  will  continue  to  have,  as  the  law 
has  recently  sanctioned  55  hours  in  that  State. 

I  asked  the  forewoman  who  told  me  the  tale,  a 
loyal  and  humorous  person,  “  How  about  the  out¬ 
put?  Did  it  fall  off?  ”  “  That’s  the  queer  thing,” 

she  said;  “  there  are  girls  on  piece  work  who  make 
more,  and  the  shop  does  more.” 

The  greatest  triumphs  in  handling  hours  have  not 
come  in  trades  where,  as  in  cutting  granite,  making 
plates  and  weaving  cotton,  the  demand  is  fairly 
steady.  It  has  come  in  seasonal  trades  —  those  ex¬ 
asperating  and  difficult  situations  created  by  having 
to  handle  in  six  weeks  two  months,  four  months,  all 
the  work  there  is  in  that  particular  occupation,  or  a 
load  ten  or  twenty  or  more  times  as  great  as  during 
the  major  part  ’of  the  year.  These  triumphs  are  al¬ 
most  entirely  triumphs  of  management,  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  trained  brains  and  determined  wills  to  prob¬ 
lems  which  industry  has  usually  declared  insoluble. 

Take  the  canning  of  fruit  and  vegetables :  we  have 
been  hearing  for  several  years  of  the  heathenish 
hours  and  conditions  under  which  it  is  done,  but  we 
have  heard  very  little  about  how  it  was  to  be  im¬ 
proved.  Out  in  Wisconsin,  the  industrial  commis¬ 
sion  decided  in  1912  to  do  something  more  practical 
than  order  the  canneries  to  reform;  they  decided  to 
help  them  work  out  a  plan  which  even  they  would 
consider  practical. 

It  is  peas  which  are  chiefly  canned  in  the  State ;  and 
the  pea  crop  refuses  to  ripen  regularly,  much  to  the 


178 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


disappointment  of  the  good  people  who  make  laws 
for  canneries  in  defiance  of  the  facts  of  nature  and 
men  !  The  crops  in  Wisconsin  are  put  in,  usually,  in 
four  plantings,  two  weeks  apart.  If  they  ripened  in 
the  same  ratio,  labour  for  the  canning  could  be  ar¬ 
ranged  for  with  something  like  exactness,  that  is, 
the  crop  could  be  handled  with  little  extra  daily 
work.  But  ripening  depends  on  the  weather,  and 
who  can  tell  what  the  weather  is  to  be?  In  1912 
the  four  plantings  in  the  State  ripened  within  ten 
days.  In  1913  it  extended  over  six  weeks.  More¬ 
over,  the  crop  acts  differently  in  the  northern  part  of 
the  State,  where  the  soil  is  sandy  and  warm,  from 
what  it  does  in  the  south,  where  the  soil  is  clay; 
again,  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State  labour  is 
scarce,  as  the  population  is  sparse;  in  the  south  it  is 
abundant,  as  the  population  is  dense. 

Here  is  a  nice  little  problem  which  heretofore  had 
been  met  by  a  non-workable  law  that  no  canner 
should  use  his  help  over  fifty-five  hours  a  week  and 
nine  hours  a  day.  Neither  labourers  or  canners 
knew  how  to  meet  this  order  —  and  did  not  try. 

At  the  suggestion  of  the  commission  a  committee, 
consisting  of  the  pea  canners  and  representatives  of 
the  public  and  the  labour  employed,  came  together 
before  the  season  of  1913  and  agreed  that  during 
the  six  weeks’  canning  season  employes  could  work 
women  12  hours  a  day  for  15  days  of  the  six 
weeks;  but  in  no  week  could  they  work  them  over  55 
hours.  For  every  hour  beyond  10  in  any  day  they 
were  to  receive  double  pay. 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


179 


Out  of  75  canners  in  the  State  all  but  15  lived  up 
to  the  programme.  The  15  violators  were  prose¬ 
cuted  by  the  commission  and  fined.  They  were  bit¬ 
terly  aggrieved  at  first,  but  in  December,  when  the 
annual  state  canners’  meeting  was  held  in  Mil¬ 
waukee,  they  found  their  60  colleagues  who  had 
obeyed  the  law  had  no  sympathy  for  them.  They 
contended  that  a  workable  law  had  been  devised, 
and  that  any  failure  to  obey  it  deserved  punishment. 

What  has  been  done  then,  in  Wisconsin,  is  to  find 
a  way  to  handle  in  a  fairly  orderly  and  efficient 
fashion  a  piece  of  seasonal  labour  of  a  particularly 
uncertain  kind. 

Almost  as  difficult  a  problem  in  hours  as  that  of 
canning  is  the  subscription  season  in  the  publishing 
world,  those  months  of  the  late  fall  and  early  winter 
when  periodicals  are  receiving  orders  for  the  year. 
Beginning  in  November  and  continuing  into  January 
and  February  a  firm  will  receive  thousands  of  orders 
a  day.  A  peak  load  of  possibly  7,000  a  week  in 
July  becomes  75,000  a  week  in  November.  In  most 
publishing  offices  this  season  of  renewal  has  always 
been  one  of  rush,  confusion  and  long  hours  of  over¬ 
time.  New  girls,  to  open,  sort,  and  enter  the  or¬ 
ders,  are  brought  in  daily  as  the  mail  piles  up. 
They  receive  their  training  as  they  work,  with 
resulting  annoyance  to  subscribers  from  mistakes  in 
addresses  and  delayed  magazines,  and  with  terrible 
wear  and  tear  on  the  office  and  with  aggravating  ex¬ 
tra  expense. 

Two  years  ago  an  attempt  was  made  by  the  Cro- 


i8o 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


well  Publishing  Company  to  apply  scientific  manage¬ 
ment  to  this  period  of  misery.  By  such  a  forecast 
as  is  possible  from  intelligent  study  of  any  business 
the  probable  orders  for  each  week  in  the  year  were 
compiled;  as  the  season  approached  and  conditions 
were  more  apparent  a  daily  forecast  was  made. 
Those  in  charge  of  the  department  knew  in  advance, 
with  an  accuracy  which  surprised  everybody,  as  it 
turned  out,  what  load  they  must  carry. 

They  did  not  wait,  as  before,  until  their  desks 
were  buried  with  a  day’s  orders,  to  pick  up  any  un¬ 
trained  girl  they  could  lay  hands  on.  They  engaged 
girls  in  advance  and  thus  were  able  to  choose  and 
train.  There  were  other  things  done;  that  most 
important  and  so  often  overlooked  matter,  the 
proper  routing  of  work,  was  fixed,  a  more  scientific 
adjustment  of  wages  was  made. 

The  results  surprised  every  one  connected  with 
the  establishment.  There  is  now  practically  no 
night  work,  though  unde-r  the  old  system  the  day 
was  regularly  from  7 130  A.  M.  to  9  P.  M.  from 
November  to  February.  Earnings  have  increased 
from  25  to  33  per  cent,  in  all  clerical  departments. 
The  working  conditions  have  been  greatly  improved. 
Complaints  were  reduced  30  per  cent,  in  the  first 
season.  The  cost  of  handling  subscriptions  has  been 
reduced  30  per  cent.,  -though  that  is  considered  less 
important  than  the  good  will  which  a  prompt  service 
earns  from  subscribers. 

That  is,  here  is  an  experiment  which  proves  that 
one  of  the  most  wearing  and  painful  periods  of  over- 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


181 


work  with  which  the  country  is  familiar,  and  one 
which  has  been  tolerated  as  unavoidable,  can  be  over¬ 
come  by  the  application  of  the  principles  of  scien¬ 
tific  management  — -  not  only  are  its  troubles  ironed 
out,  but  the  workers  earn  more  money  and  the  con¬ 
cern  saves! 

One  of  the  completest  victories  over  irregular  and 
long  hours  of  which  I  know  is  that  of  the  Pilgrim 
Laundry  of  Brooklyn,  New  York.  It  is  a  triumph 
of  sound  progressive  management  combined  with 
an  unusual  understanding  of  and  respect  for  the  part 
the  human  equation  plays  in  industrial  undertakings. 

The  first  thing  that  piqued  my  curiosity  about  this 
plant  was  its  hours  of  46^  a  week,  and,  what  was 
as  important  to  my  mind,  they  were  regular.  In  all 
the  recent  upheavals  over  laundries  the  cruelly  long 
hours  crowded  into  a  few  days  of  the  week  have 
been  the  most  disturbing  feature —  11,  13,  even  17, 
were  reported. 

Just  before  the  close  of  Congress  in  February, 
1912,  the  House  Committee  on  Labour  gave  a  series 
of  hearings  on  limiting  the  hours  of  labour  of  women 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  to  eight  a  day.  The 
committee  was  snowed  under  by  protests.  Even  a 
worker  brought  in  as  a  witness  told  the  puzzled 
congressmen  that  “  while  that  eight-hour  system  is 
very  nice,  I  don’t  see  where  laundry  work  can  be 
accomplished  and  gotten  out  in  that  time,  to  save  my 
life.”  The  public  was  to  blame.  It  would  not 
change  its  linen  until  Sunday.  The  collection  of 
bundles  could  not  be  started  until  Monday  morning, 


182 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


and  they  must  all  be  returned  by  Saturday  night. 
Thus  there  were  only  four  days  in  the  week  for 
work.  This  explanation  has  generally  floored  the 
best-intentioned.  Even  a  radical  law-maker  hesi¬ 
tates  to  legislate  about  the  time  the  public  shall 
change  its  shirt. 

The  founders  of  the  Pilgrim  Laundry  have  never 
accepted  the  idea  that  because  hard  and  exasperat¬ 
ing  conditions  prevail  in  their  industry  they  were 
inevitable.  Ever  since  they  began,  twenty  years 
ago,  they  have  worked  steadily  to  overcome  those 
features  of  the  business  which  have  made  it  diffi¬ 
cult  to  build  up  a  stable  and  contented  force.  Al¬ 
though  their  first  establishment  was  crowded  they 
determined  to  have  no  eating  of  lunches  on  the  iron¬ 
ing  boards. 

By  providing  folding  tables  and  chairs  to  be  kept 
under  the  tables  in  the  working  hours,  and  by  mark¬ 
ing  on  the  floor  the  spot  where  each  was  to  be  set, 
the  girls  ate  their  lunch  in  a  decent  fashion  —  and 
this,  remember,  was  twenty  years  ago.  About  this 
time  they  started  a  rest  period  at  nine  o’clock  with 
coffee  and  crackers.  These  were  simply  indications 
of  the  way  they  tried  to  make  the  shop  work  less  dis¬ 
agreeable. 

From  the  beginning  they  attacked  the  hours. 
Calling  together  the  girls  on  the  floor  they  would 
seek  their  co-operation  in  putting  through  new 
schemes  devised  for  handling  the  clothes  in  shorter 
time. 

Several  years  ago  they  succeeded  in  greatly  reduc- 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


183 

ing  the  overtime  prevalent  in  the  business,  and  for 
several  years  have  closed  regularly  at  5  130.  And 
what  were  these  efforts  worth?  Their  plant  grew 
steadily  until  they  were  employing  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men  and  women.  But  they  did  not  realise  what 
they  had  achieved  until  suddenly  everything  was 
burned  to  ashes.  Then  it  was  that  those  who  had 
watched  their  efforts  rallied  to  them  with  money 
and  credit,  and,  better  still,  then  it  was  that  those 
who  had  worked  with  them  came  to  them  and  said, 
“We  will  do  anything  we  can  to  help  save  the  Pil¬ 
grim.” 

And  they  worked  nights  for  seven  weeks  in  other 
plants  and  with  the  co-operation  of  the  salesmen 
held  the  business  together.  Out  of  the  force  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  girls  working  in  the  Pil¬ 
grim  laundry  when  it  wa.s  burned  in  1906,  only  five 
did  not  report  for  work  when  two  months  later  the 
management  was  ready  to  reopen  their  temporary 
plant. 

Five  years  later,  taking  nearly  a  square  on  what 
was  then  the  outskirts  of  Brooklyn,  they  put  up  a 
building  which  is  an  admirable  example  of  the  adap¬ 
tation  of  a  thing  to  its  purpose.  From  without,  it 
seems  a  structure  largely  of  glass  set  in  a  frame  of 
red  brick  and  pale  green  ironwork.  Within,  it  is  a 
thing  of  glass  and  white  paint.  Strength,  sanita¬ 
tion,  air,  light,  proof  against  fire  —  these  seem  to 
have  been  the  main  ideas  in  designing  the  building. 
The  result  is  a  structure  which  in  certain  fundamen¬ 
tals  to  good  health  goes  as  far  as  any  public  build- 


184 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ing  —  theatre,  church,  office,  shop  —  that  I  person¬ 
ally  have  seen. 

When  the  plant  was  finished  it  was  equipped  wfith 
all  that  complicated  machinery  which  has  been  substi¬ 
tuted  in  all  large  laundries  in  the  last  twenty  years 
for  the  primitive  utensils  of  tub,  washboard,  boiler 
and  flatiron. 

The  new  building  when  finished  and  equipped  was 
an  inspiration  alike  to  firm  and  employes. 

“  We  must  do  something  worthy  of  all  this,”  they 
all  felt.  “  We  must  live  up  to  this  building,  not 
only  in  the  quality  of  the  work  we  put  out,  but, 
what  is  more  important,  in  the  kind  of  relations  that 
we  develop  with  the  people  who,  if  this  plant  is  to 
be  successful,  must  make  it  so.” 

The  results  of  their  efforts,  applied  as  they  have 
been  to  already  efficient  methods  and  to  a  group  ac¬ 
customed  to  try  experiments,  have  been  a  reve¬ 
lation  in  what  can  be  done  if  men  are  willing  to 
try. 

The  hard  problem  of  hours  has  been  solved. 
Take  the  public’s  reluctance  to  giving  out  laundry 
on  any  day  but  Monday.  The  Pilgrim  Laundry  has 
overcome  that  by  educating  its  public  to  have  a  por¬ 
tion  of  its  linen  ready  for  collection  on  Thursday, 
Friday  and  Saturday.  The  result  is  that  work  can 
begin  in  the  laundry  bright  and  early  Monday  morn¬ 
ing. 

By  what  persuasive  arguments  and  long  patience 
they  succeeded  in  educating  four  thousand  customers 
to  this  revolutionary  practice,  I  do  not  know.  That 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


185 


they  sent  out  such  notices  as  that  here  printed  1  is 
certain;  that  their  salesmen,  with  all  the  enthusiasm 

1  Pilgrim  Steam  Laundry  Co. 

633  Seventeenth  St. 

Borough  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

IMPORTANT! 

CHANGE  OF  CALLING  DAY 

The  irregular  working  hours  of  laundry  help  are  caused,  mainly, 
by  two  conditions:  first,  by  reason  of  the  present  method  of  collec¬ 
tion  and  delivery  of  work,  and,  second,  on  account  of  the  large  fluc¬ 
tuation  between  the  amount  of  laundry  received  from  regular  cus¬ 
tomers  during  different  weeks  and  seasons. 

By  commencing  collecting  soiled  linen  on  Monday  and  finishing 
delivery  on  Saturday,  there  are  intervals  at  the  beginning  and  end 
of  each  week  when  the  workers  in  the  laundry  have  nothing  to  do, 
and  without  working  overtime  —  a  fair  number  of  hours’  work  per 
week  cannot  be  accomplished. 

A  plan  has  been  tried  in  several  cities  whereby  part  of  the  work, 
now  collected  the  first  three  days  of  the  week,  is  taken  the  last  three 
days,  and  delivered  the  first  three  days  of  the  next  week. 

This  plan  enables  the  management  to  operate  their  works  a  definite 
number  of  hours  per  day,  thus  doing  away  with  the  worst  abuse  in 
the  industry,  i.  e.,  irregular  hours. 

To  you  it  insures  your  work  being  done  under  uniform  conditions, 
as  the  hurry  and  push  at  certain  seasons  make  for  an  inferior  product. 

It  also  insures  a  more  uniform  time  of  delivery. 

We  therefore  ask  you  to  give  us  your  work  on 

,  February  ,  and  the  same  day  of  the  week 

thereafter. 

As  the  longer  wait  than  usual  may  inconvenience  you  the  first 
week,  we  will  gladly  accept  half  your  work  on  the  usual  call  day 
and  the  other  half  on  the  new  call  day. 

At  first  thought  this  plan  may  not  meet  with  your  approval;  we 
urge  you,  however,  to  give  it  a  fair  trial,  believing  you  will  find  it 
no  more  troublesome  than  the  present  plan.  We  also  urge  you  in 
behalf  of  our  entire  working  force  to  accept  it,  as  years  of  study  to 
better  conditions  have  not  made  possible  such  an  ideal  as  will  be 
attained  by  putting  in  effect  this  change. 

If  there  are  any  details  on  which  you  wish  further  information, 

please  send  us  the  enclosed  card. 

Yours  respectfully, 

The  Pilgrim  Steam  Laundry  Co. 


i86 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


of  youth,  harangued  their  customers  that  they  had 
a  duty  in  this  matter,  and  that  it  was  altogether  in¬ 
consistent  for  them  to  denounce  at  their  clubs  the 
wickedness  of  laundrymen  if  they  were  not  willing  to 
take  the  extra  trouble  of  changing  their  day  for  de¬ 
livering  their  clothes,  is  certain. 

The  point  is  that  they  educated  the  women,  and 
that  to-day  the  Pilgrim  Laundry  gathers  and  de¬ 
livers  its  wrork  every  day  of  the  week.  Each  cus¬ 
tomer  knows  not  only  the  day,  but  the  exact  hour 
at  which  the  waggon  will  call  for  her  clothes.  She 
has  been  made  to  understand  the  importance  in  a 
big  co-operative  undertaking  of  being  exact.  She 
has  been  made  to  see  that  if  she  is  late,  she  makes 
the  boy  late  on  his  rounds,  and  that  she  puts  back  the 
machinery  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  more  working 
people.  That  is,  the  Pilgrim  Laundry  has  educated 
a  slice  of  the  Brooklyn  populace  to  what  co-opera¬ 
tive  effort  really  means. 

But  something  more  is  needed  than  getting  in  the 
clothes  regularly.  The  lack  of  all  method  in  han¬ 
dling  the  clothes  in  the  old-fashioned  laundry  has  al¬ 
ways  been  a  particularly  depressing  feature  to  an 
intelligent  person.  It  was  all  very  well  to  say  that 
the  work  ought  to  be  handled  in  so  many  hours  and 
the  girls  allowed  to  go  home  promptly  at  5  130  or  6, 
or  whatever  the  time  might  be;  but  what  are  you  to 
do  if  the  customers’  work  is  unfinished,  due  to  an 
excessively  heavy  week,  or  a  holiday? 

If  deliveries  are  not  promptly  made,  there  are  no 
more  customers;  and  if  there  are  no  more  customers, 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


187 


there  is  no  work;  if  there  is  no  work,  there  is  no 
bread  and,  hard  and  wretched  as  it  all  is,  it  was  not 
enough  to  say  this  must  not  be.  The  important 
thing  was  to  show  how  it  could  be  avoided.  No 
commissioner  or  investigator  could  show  that,  for 
the  very  simple  reason  that  he  did  not  know  anything 
about  the  business.  All  he  could  do  was  to  check  up 
hours  and  say  this  or  that  operation  was  killing. 

System,  co-operation,  continual  experimenting  had 
done  much  to  regulate  the  work  of  the  Pilgrim 
Laundry;  but  its  managers  were  not  satisfied  that 
more  could  not  be  done. 

Carefully  and  tentatively,  principle  after  principle 
of  scientific  management  was  tried  out.  The  work 
was  planned  and  routed.  Each  separate  operation 
was  studied  until  the  best  and  easiest  and  quickest 
method  was  found.  Girls  were  instructed  in  —  not 
left  to  pick  up  —  the  proper  use  of  machines.  The 
kind  of  work  each  particular  girl  could  do  best  was 
discovered.  The  wage  scale  was  revolutionised. 
Divided  into  classes  as  the  force  was,  according  to 
the  kind  of  linen  each  handled,  each  class  had  its 
representative  on  the  factory  committee,  which  met 
regularly  with  the  overseers’  committee  to  discuss 
the  problem  of  the  work,  that  is,  the  floor  was  kept 
in  touch  with  the  management  through  representa¬ 
tives  of  its  own  members,  and  through  talks  by  the 
management  once  every  week. 

The  result  of  all  this  has  been  brilliant.  One  of 
them  is  the  splendid  triumph  of  reducing  the  hours 
to  4 Gy2  a  week.  With  this  reduction  and  regula- 


i88 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


tion  of  hours  has  come  a  wage  scale  unheard  of  in 
laundries.  Mangle  work,  which  a  few  years  ago  was 
paid  but  three  or  four  dollars  a  week  and  which  had 
been  advanced  in  this  plant  by  April,  1912,  to  an  av¬ 
erage  of  $6.97  a  week,  is  now  paid  an  average  of 
$8.90  a  week,  and  mangle  work  is  the  cheapest  in  the 
factory. 

In  the  four  months  from  August  1  to  December 
1,  1914,  the  average  wage  per  capita  was  6%  Per 
cent,  higher  than  for  the  corresponding  months  of 
1913,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  the  laundry  business 
felt  in  a  measure  the  same  depression  as  other  busi¬ 
nesses  during  those  four  months. 

At  the  same  time  the  rest  periods  of  five  minutes 
every  hour  and  a  half,  distributed  through  the  day, 
have  reduced  to  eight  hours  and  ten  minutes  per  day 
the  actual  working  hours  of  the  girls. 

The  rest  periods  have  not  lessened  the  quantity 
of  work  produced  per  day.  The  departments  where 
these  rest  periods  have  been  established  for  several 
months  show  a  gain  in  physical  condition  which  re¬ 
sults  in  fewer  absences  and,  consequently,  greater  ef¬ 
ficiency.  The  pleasant  lunch-room,  the  recreations 
planned  by  the  fine  woman  who  handles  the  so-called 
service  work  of  the  place,  the  constant  care  of  health, 
have  improved  the  girls  so  that  the  time  lost  from 
illness  has  been  reduced  to  a  degree  which  the  man¬ 
agement  had  not  even  dared  to  hope. 

One  of  the  most  conclusive  proofs  that  labour  ap¬ 
preciates  and  approves  a  management  is  the  reduc¬ 
tion  of  the  number  of  those  who  leave  or  are  dis- 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


189 


charged.  In  19 11,  379  left  the  Pilgrim  Laundry, 
78  were  discharged,  3  were  married,  out  of  a  regu¬ 
lar  force  of  175  employes.  In  1912,  161  left,  109 
were  discharged,  and  7  married.  In  1913,  12 1  left, 
51  were  discharged,  and  10  were  married,  out  of 
260  employes.  In  the  period  since  scientific  man¬ 
agement  was  undertaken  there  has  been  an  increase 
of  20  per  cent,  in  business  with  an  inappreciable  in¬ 
crease  of  help.  In  the  period  of  business  depression 
of  1914  there  was  a  falling  off  of  business  in  laun¬ 
dries  in  nearly  if  not  all  our  cities  of  from  10  to  25 
per  cent.  Yet  in  this  period  the  Pilgrim  Laundry 
gained  6  1-3  per  cent. 

It  is  but  another  proof  that  where  brains,  deter¬ 
mination,  patience  and  a  sense  of  human  relations 
are  applied  to  business  management  the  problem  of 
long  hours  can  be  solved.  The  short  day  is  part  of 
good  management.  The  highest  efficiency  is  as  in¬ 
compatible  with  a  long  day  as  it  is  with  bad  ventila¬ 
tion,  poor  sanitation,  low  wages,  or  the  failure  to 
co-operate.  This  judgment  is  not  based  merely  on 
the  few  cases  quoted  here.  They  are  but  illustra¬ 
tions  drawn  from  a  great  body  of  similar  expe¬ 
riences. 

Wherever  a  careful  application  of  scientific  man¬ 
agement  has  been  made  in  shop  or  factory,  the  tend¬ 
ency  is  to  reduce  hours.  Organised  labour  denies 
this.  Among  the  trade  union  objections  to  the  sys¬ 
tem  which  have  been  presented  to  Congress  is  the 
statement  that  it  tends  to  lengthen  the  hours  of 
labour.  This  statement  has  even  gone  in  with  the 


igo 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


approval  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labour. 
There  is  no  factory  of  which  I  know  where  this  is 
true.  Sanford  E.  Thompson,  who  is  certainly  one 
of  the  most  experienced  men  in  the  Taylor  group, 
declares  that  he  has  seen  frequent  reduction  of  hours 
in  the  plants  with  which  he  is  familiar,  and  he  be¬ 
lieved  it  inevitable  in  all  shops  which  are  on  a  long 
day.  Practically  every  engineer  that  I  have  known 
interested  in  scientific  management  gives  as  one  of 
his  arguments  for  it  that  it  tends  to  shorter  hours  of 
labour.  At  the  hearings  on  the  subject  held  before 
the  Congressional  Committee  of  Labour  in  April, 
1916,  several  employers  and  managers  testified  that 
their  experience  has  been  that  the  short  day  followed 
the  introduction  of  the  system.  Mr.  Noyes,  the 
General  Superintendent  of  the  German-American 
Button  Company  of  Rochester,  New  York,  told  the 
committee  that  before  the  introduction  of  scientific 
management  into  his  factory  the  hours  were  59  to 
60  per  week,  that  the  actual  work  hours  now  are 

51  1‘3* 

At  the  same  hearings  Mr.  Feiss  of  the  Clothcraft 
Shop  of  Cleveland  said  that  the  average  working 
time  for  the  great  majority  of  the  people  of  his  fac¬ 
tory  was  45  hours  a  week,  that  is  about  7F2  hours  a 
day.  Mr.  Feiss  told  the  committee  that  he  believed 
that  the  working  hours  in  every  industry  should  be 
limited  to  those  hours,  whatever  they  happen  to  be, 
beyond  which  human  energy  will  flag  and  tire. 

Mr.  C.  J.  Morrison,  a  New  York  consulting  en¬ 
gineer,  of  the  firm  of  Meyer,  Morrison  &  Company, 


A  MAN’S  HOURS 


191 

has  had  a  large  experience  in  putting  factories  on 
three  shifts  of  eight  hours  each,  and  always  with 
the  result  that  the  shorter  shift  was  more  profitable 
than  the  longer  had  been.  He  points  out  carefully 
that  simply  changing  a  plant  from  ten  hours  to 
eight  and  operating  under  rule-of-thumb  methods 
will  only  increase  costs;  but  if  on  the  other  hand,  the 
work  is  properly  planned  and  despatched,  so  that 
each  worker  has  a  job  and  the  necessary  tools  for 
performing  it,  costs  will  go  down.  In  one  printing 
plant  which  was  handling  a  kind  of  work  in  which 
the  competition  is  especially  keen,  Mr.  Morrison 
spent  a  good  many  months  stopping  leaks,  solving 
problems  of  power,  light,  heat,  humidity,  handling 
materials,  etc.  Finally  he  believed  that  the  eight- 
hour  day  could  be  made  profitable.  It  was  accord¬ 
ingly  established  and  immediately  the  result  that 
he  had  anticipated  was  realised,  that  is,  the  costs 
wTere  materially  reduced  and  profits  increased. 

Mr.  Morrison  is  a  firm  believer  in  three  eight- 
hour  shifts  and  offers  very  interesting  figures  to 
show  how  large  a  decrease  in  operating  expenses 
and  increase  in  profits  comes  from  using  a  plant 
twenty-four  hours  out  of  the  day  instead  of  ten, 
twelve  or  sixteen.  In  one  of  his  pieces  of  work  he 
found  that  the  burden  of  cost  for  the  eight-hour 
shift  was  $162,200,  for  the  two  shifts  $214,200 
and  for  the  three  shifts  $250,400.  As  a  result  of 
this  change  from  one  to  three  shifts  the  burden  per 
pound  was  changed  from  about  5  V2  cents  to  about 
2%. 


192 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


What  has  happened  in  this  fight  against  the  long 
day  is  most  significant  —  a  hint  of  what  we  may  ex¬ 
pect  from  every  effort  to  make  the  conditions  of  men 
and  women  more  just  and  more  tolerable.  It  was 
attacked  because  of  its  inhumanity.  It  drained  the 
forces  of  men  and  women  beyond  repair.  It  made 
them  old  before  their  time.  It  visited  its  curse  on 
their  children.  It  turned  the  blessing  of  labour  to 
an  unendurable  burden,  and  streaked  human  prog¬ 
ress  with  lines  of  such  woe  and  injustice  that 
men  and  women  came  to  question  civilisation  itself. 

And  yet  men  clung  to  it.  In  no  other  way,  they 
declared,  could  we  get  the  world’s  work  done.  It 
was  not  only  the  mill  hand,  the  shop  girl,  the  domes¬ 
tic,  the  miner  who  kept  a  long  day.  The  editor,  the 
banker,  and  the  teacher,  accepted  the  theory  that  it 
was  only  by  long  hours  that  they  were  to  succeed. 
It  has  been  the  habit  of  the  country  to  make  a  virtue 
of  sitting  at  its  desk  —  whether  its  mind  was  there 
or  not.  “  From  sun  to  sun,”  was  the  worker’s  day 
—  fewer  hours  proved  him  an  idler,  soil  for  the 
Devil !  The  surprise  of  the  fight  on  the  long  day, 
of  the  experiments  with  the  shorter  one,  has  been  not 
only  that  the  business  could  stand  it,  but  that  the 
business  thrived  under  it  as  surely  as  the  man  did. 
It  is  but  another  of  the  proofs  which  are  heaping  up 
in  American  industry  to-day  that  whatever  is  good 
for  men  and  women  —  contributes  to  their  health, 
happiness,  development  —  is  good  for  business. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

A  man’s  HIRE 

When  the  day  comes,  as  it  must,  that  men  shall 
have  worked  out  tables  fixing  the  relative  value  of 
the  service  each  renders  the  world,  present  day  in¬ 
come,  wage  and  salary  records  will  look  as  pre¬ 
posterous  as  French  pre-revolutionary  tax  lists  look 
to-day.  The  great  mass  of  men  and  women  give 
so  much  and  get  so  little!  “Unrequited  toil”  is 
piling  up  now  as  it  has  been  through  all  the  past,  and 
one  day  it  must  be  wiped  out. 

Those  who  suppose  that  only  dealers  in  words 
and  ideas  think  these  things  do  not  know  our  time. 
The  producing  world  is  hard  after  a  fresh  readjust¬ 
ment  of  values  for  services  rendered.  Scores  of 
experiments  are  making  in  scores  of  different  indus¬ 
tries,  weighings  and  computings  of  what  miners  and 
bankers,  engineers  and  promoters,  speech-makers 
and  child-bearers,  grass-growers  and  shop-keepers 
are  worth. 

In  a  report  made  four  years  ago  to  a  national  as¬ 
sociation  of  employers  in  one  of  our  greatest  and 
richest  industries  and  signed  by  names  standing  in 
their  different  communities  for  ability  and  power  is  a 
paragraph  headed  “  The  Value  of  Labour.”  It 
opens :  “  Are  our  employes,  individually  or  col- 

193 


194 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


lectively,  receiving  all  the  results  of  their  labour  to 
which  they  may  be  properly  entitled?  ”  and  then  fol¬ 
lows  a  searching  analysis  of  conditions  and  relations 
in  the  great  industry  the  signers  represent.  Wages, 
the  signers  of  this  document  consider  only  the  start¬ 
ing  point  in  the  earnings  of  an  industrious  and  faith¬ 
ful  worker.  They  declare  that  they  should  be  fully 
equal  to  those  paid  by  other  employers  engaged  in 
similar  work,  and  that  nothing  in  the  suggestions 
they  make  for  adding  other  returns  should  ever  be 
made  a  pretext  for  lowering  or  tampering  with  them. 

This  is  a  big  step,  but  in  no  way  does  it  help  us  in 
settling  whether  or  no  the  amount  “  paid  by  other 
employers  engaged  in  similar  work  ”  is  what  it 
should  be.  This  “  basic  wage  ”  which  is  all  that  the 
labourers  of  the  world  have  to  live  on  as  a  rule  has 
always  been  the  resultant  of  many  dire  and  ignorant 
forces  operating  on  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
If  the  industrial  world  was  perfectly  organised,  if 
the  road  through  it  was  open  to  all  kinds  of  talent 
and  we  had  an  unfailing  system  for  helping  each  to 
develop  his  best,  if  there  was  as  great  a  passion  in 
the  world  for  efficiency  and  justice  as  for  the  u  soft 
job  ”  and  “  the  lion’s  share,”  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand  would  undoubtedly  work  out  a  fairly  just 
wage.  As  things  now  are  that  law  is  twisted  and 
deformed  by  continually  changing  conditions  which 
drive  men  to  take  what  they  can  get,  anything  rather 
than  starvation;  by  demand,  imperious,  changeful, 
unrestricted  by  contracts  or  principles,  obsessed  with 
the  notion  that  cheap  labour  is  profitable.  Is  it 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


19* 

strange  that  the  fixing  of  wages  has  become  practi¬ 
cally  a  tug-of-war  between  those  who  direct  indus¬ 
tries  and  the  labouring  mass,  whose  only  power  lies 
in  its  ability  to  refuse  to  work  —  often  at  the  price 
of  semi-starvation?  The  senselessness,  waste  and 
injustice  of  fixing  by  such  primitive  methods  the  re¬ 
turn  which  a  man  shall  receive  for  real  service  has 
for  years  now  troubled  an  increasing  number  of  em¬ 
ployers  and  led  to  various  efforts  to  formulate  theo¬ 
ries  both  sound  and  practical  for  its  control.  “  Co¬ 
operative  bargaining,”  “  the  living  wage,”  “  the 
minimum  wage,”  “  compulsory  arbitration,”  “  the 
sliding  scale,”  are  theories  which  are  influencing  the 
opinion  and  practice  of  employers,  and  leading  to 
observation  and  experiments  more  or  less  scientific. 
One  if  not  the  most  important  conclusion  that  large 
bodies  of  managers  have  drawn  from  the  mass  of 
experience  with  wages  in  the  last  twenty-five  years 
is  the  unsoundness  of  the  old  dogma  that  a  low  wage 
is  a  profitable  wage.  So  long  as  men  believed  that 
all  increase  in  pay  must  come  out  of  profits,  that  is, 
that  the  increase  brought  no  increase  in  efficiency, 
they  were  bound  to  fight  all  changes.  Labour  has 
been  brought  up  on  the  theory  that  its  gains  came  out 
of  the  amount  capital  would  otherwise  receive.  It 
was  thus  put  into  the  position  of  an  enemy  of  capital. 
Under  this  theory  it  had  no  alternative  but  war  if  it 
was  to  better  its  wage. 

Scores  of  recent  experiments  have  demonstrated 
the  unsoundness  of  this  view.  The  high  wage  under 
proper  management,  like  the  short  day  under  proper 


196 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


management,  means  increased  output.  Take  as  an 
illustration  the  work  on  the  problem  that  was  begun 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  by  a  certain  Brooklyn 
drop-forging  company.  Thirty  years  ago  this  house 
was  one  of  the  smallest  of  its  kind  in  the  United 
States.  The  two  men  who  owned  it  made  up,  with 
the  men  at  the  hammers,  practically  its  entire  force. 
They  managed  it;  kept  its  books;  sold  its  output. 
One  of  their  subjects  of  friendly  chaffing  in  those 
early  days  was  that  the  junior  partner  worked  at  a 
desk  which  cost  seven  dollars  while  that  of  the  senior 
partner  cost  but  six  dollars. 

This  senior  partner  at  the  six-dollar  desk,  James 
H.  Williams  by  name,  held  as  a  principle  of  success 
a  doctrine  so  in  contradiction  to  that  then  held  by 
most  American  manufacturers  that  even  to  have 
stated  it  would  have  brought  down  ridicule  upon  him. 
He  put  hope  of  success  not  alone,  or  chiefly,  in  him¬ 
self  or  his  partner,  in  his  bank  or  his  market,  in  tariff 
or  rebates:  it  was  the  men  who  made  a  business  suc¬ 
cessful  he  said.  And  they  would  do  it  if  relations 
of  mutual  advantage,  good  will,  justice  and  respect 
prevailed. 

This  being  his  belief,  Mr.  Williams  set  himself 
to  carrying  it  out.  He  decided,  in  spite  of  the  fact* 
that  he  was  running  the  smallest  business  of  the  kind 
in  the  country,  to  pay  high  wages.  One  of  his  chief 
concerns  as  the  business  grew  was  to  see  that  the 
men  were  getting  all  that  they  earned.  Again 
and  again  a  man  was  called  in  and  told  that  some¬ 
thing  had  been  added  to  his  wages  because  he  was 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


197 


earning  it.  But  the  reverse  was  never  true,  that  is, 
the  pay  was  never  cut  below  what  was  considered  a 
day’s  wage. 

But  Mr.  Williams  was  not  satisfied  with  the  opera¬ 
tion  of  the  fixed  daily  wages.  He  believed  that  it 
did  not  give  the  men  a  sufficient  chance  or  the  maxi¬ 
mum  incentive.  Accordingly  fifteen  years  ago  he 
introduced  wherever  he  could  a  system  of  piece  work. 
It  was  at  a  time  when  this  system  was  highly,  and 
justly,  unpopular;  but  Mr.  Williams  in  introducing 
it  made  it  an  ironclad  rule  that  the  two  practices 
which  had  made  its  bad  repute  should  never  be 
allowed  in  his  shop.  In  the  first  place,  the  regular 
day’s  wage  was  guaranteed,  whatever  the  man’s  out¬ 
put.  In  the  second  place,  his  piece  work  rate  was 
never  to  be  cut,  whatever  the  conditions;  if  it  was 
ten  cents  a  piece,  ten  cents  it  should  remain.  “  You 
may  earn  all  you  can  and  the  more  it  is  the  better 
we  shall  like  it.” 

The  experiment  was  immediately  successful. 
Earnings  of  workmen  rose  in  some  cases  to  six  dol¬ 
lars  or  more  a  day,  and  at  one  period  in  two  years 
the  shop’s  output  was  doubled.  There  were  certain 
other  phases  of  this  wage  policy  which  Mr.  Wil¬ 
liams  insisted  on:  for  instance,  if  dull  times  came, 
as  they  always  do  come,  the  work  went  on,  stock 
being  made  up  in  order  to  keep  the  men  together. 
If  this  lasted  longer  than  the  resources  of  the  firm 
could  stand,  half  time  was  tried,  and  men  were  em¬ 
ployed  alternately  so  as  to  give  each  a  fair  chance. 

Consider  the  heresy!  It  upset  the  dogma  upon 


198 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


which  our  whole  wage  system  has  been  based,  the 
dogma  of  the  economy  of  cheap  labour.  You  must 
pay  labour  as  little  as  possible,  since  this  is  the  only 
way  to  produce  cheaply  and  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the 
people  that  things  be  cheap.  There  is  also  a  moral 
reason  for  low  wages.  High  wages  give  men  more 
money  to  spend  in  drink  and  “  idle  amusement,”  and 
hence  are  a  kind  of  social  evil!  in  other  words,  spoil 
labour. 

Mr.  Williams’s  experiment  with  his  creed  proved 
that  it  did  not  spoil  labour.  To-day  the  little  drop- 
forge  works  of  two  hammers  in  1882,  and  the  small¬ 
est  of  the  eight  in  the  United  States  at  that  time, 
has  eighty-seven,  and  is  the  largest  of  some  twenty- 
eight  or  more  in  the  country. 

The  average  service  period  of  the  seven  hundred 
men  it  employs  is  ten  years.  Fathers  and  their  sons 
are  in  the  shop  and  grandsons  are  expected. 
The  present  president  of  the  company  once  worked 
at  a  forge.  Moreover,  it  is  a  shop  from  which  has 
been  taken  all  fear  of  “  soldiering.”  Every  man  is 
intent  on  keeping  the  shop’s  place  at  the  head  of  the 
list.  He  gains  by  it.  This  practice  solved  for  Mr. 
Williams  one  of  the  chief  problems  under  which 
nearly  all  of  his  competitors  laboured  —  that  of  the 
strike.  In  thirty  years  the  firm  has  had  but  one 
strike,  and  that  a  revolt  against  an  unpopular  fore¬ 
man;  it  was  of  but  three  days’  duration. 

Now  these  were  discoveries,  profitable  discover¬ 
ies,  trade  advantages.  Mr.  Williams  spent  his  life 
in  establishing  them  as  beyond  question  in  the  minds 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


199 


of  his  associates  and  men.  That  was  his  life  work, 
and  some  eight  years  ago  he  died,  -  leaving  behind 
him,  a  factory  which  had  grown  from  the  smallest 
of  its  kind  in  the  United  States  to  the  largest,  and 
with  a  market  which,  once  scarcely  extending  beyond 
Greater  New  York,  literally  embraces  the  world. 

An  honest  achievement  is  always  a  fertile  thing. 
It  casts  its  seeds  to  the  wind  and  one  never  knows 
where  they  will  fall  and  sprout.  Mr.  Williams  had 
a  partner,  he  who  sat  at  the  seven-dollar  desk.  His 
name  was  William  C.  Redfield.  Because  of  what 
he  learned  by  watching  his  senior  partner  working 
out  his  industrial  creed  —  because  of  his  faith  in 
it  and  his  preaching  of  it  Mr.  Redfield  is  now  United 
States  Secretary  of  Commerce ! 

Mr.  Redfield  did  not  take  the  Williams  creed  as 
a  matter  of  course.  He  could  not,  for  his  work  in 
the  firm  was  such  as  constantly  to  impress  on  his 
mind  the  wide  difference  between  his  factory  and 
others.  The  goods  made  there,  and  which  he  spent 
much  of  his  time  putting  on  the  market,  were  used 
by  manufacturers.  To  sell  them,  visits  to  other  fac¬ 
tories  were  necessary.  Not  only  did  Mr.  Redfield 
become  familiar  with  factories  in  the  United  States, 
but  he  visited  those  of  many  countries.  Trained  to 
believe  that  the  foundations  of  a  business  is  its  men, 
and  that  the  relations  with  them  —  their  conditions, 
wages,  spirit — are  all-important,  those  were  the 
things  he  noted  and  compared.  His  observations 
and  experiences  in  selling  only  strengthened  his  be¬ 
lief  in  Mr.  Williams’s  wisdom.  He  came  to  feel 


200 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


that  principles  had  been  established,  which  if  ac¬ 
cepted,  would  revolutionise  American  industry. 

One  of  the  first  conclusions  he  came  to  as  he 
travelled  about  the  world  on  his  business  was  that 
many,  if  not  all,  American  manufacturers  were  mak¬ 
ing  a  terrible  and  costly  mistake  in  believing  that 
they  were  hampered  in  the  world’s  markets  by  the 
cost  of  their  labour.  This  came  from  a  series  of 
personal  experiences  in  selling  his  own  wares  and 
in  observing  what  other  American  firms  were  selling. 

He  found  that  he  could  make  and  deliver  goods 
to  competing  English  manufacturers  at  a  price  which 
would  enable  the  Englishman  to  make  a  ten  per  cent, 
profit.  He  found  that  in  Belgium,  where  wages 
were  the  lowest  in  Europe,  he  could  fill  orders  satis¬ 
factorily  to  the  buyers,  in  price  and  quality.  He 
found  that  in  Paris,  where  at  one  time  he  had  had 
an  office,  the  work  of  the  French  carpenter  at  $1.90 
a  day  was  dearer  than  that  of  a  Yankee  at  $4.50. 

He  found  that  in  Japan  we  could  underbid  native 
manufacturers  of  locomotives,  although  the  Ameri¬ 
can  worker  received  wages  three  and  a  half  times 
greater.  He  found  standard  American  goods  of  a 
great  variety  sold  in  the  markets  of  Europe  and 
Asia  in  competition  with  goods  produced  by  labour 
which  was  paid  far  less  per  day,  at  prices  lower  than 
they  are  here.  He  found  American  lead  pencils  in 
Central  Java  and  shaving  soap  made  in  New  Jersey 
in  Hongkong. 

How  was  this  possible,  if  the  theory  that  high 
wages  are  dear  wages  is  true?  It  is  not  true  —  that 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


201 


was  Mr.  Redfield’s  conclusion.  He  watched  labour 
at  work  wherever  he  went,  and  everywhere  it  was 
forced  upon  him  that  the  low  wages  of  Europe  and 
the  East  are  costly  and  wasteful;  that  the  man  or 
woman  who  works  for  a  sum  which  will  barely 
feed  and  clothe  and  shelter  him,  who  works 
without  a  certainty  that  as  his  efficiency  increases  his 
pay  will  increase  in  a  just  and  definite  ratio,  who 
works  without  a  consciousness  of  the  sympathetic 
interest  and  co-operation  of  all  those  over  him,  that 
man  or  woman’s  output  is  the  most  costly  in  the 
labour  world. 

These  were  the  conclusions  that  Mr.  Redfield 
formed  from  experience.  A  few  years  ago  he  left 
the  firm  and  entered  public  life  for  the  purpose  of 
preaching  the  gospel  of  what  he  calls  the  “  New 
Industrial  Day.”  His  preaching  led  him  to  Con¬ 
gress,  where  for  one  term  he  fought  for  a  reduction 
of  the  tariff.  His  contribution  to  the  discussion  of 
the  “  cost  of  production  ”  in  the  Sixty-second  Con¬ 
gress  gave  advocates  of  a  high  tariff  one  of  the  rudest 
jolts  they  have  had  in  fifty  years.  Incidentally,  too, 
they  administered  a  tonic  to  the  debates  which  was 
as  effective  as  unexpected. 

From  Congress,  Mr.  Redfield  went  into  Mr.  Wil¬ 
son’s  cabinet,  where  he  is  working  on  the  stimulating 
theory  that  the  essential  element  in  industry,  the  ele¬ 
ment  upon  which  progress  chiefly  depends,  is  the  man. 
To  neglect  the  man,  in  his  judgment,  is  to  starve  the 
industry  —  take  from  it  vitality,  freshness  and  in¬ 
itiative.  Unless  men  are  considered  first,  he  con- 


202 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


tinually  preaches,  you  cannot  cut  your  cost  of  pro¬ 
duction.  Consider  them  first,  and  there  is  practically 
no  end  to  your  progress. 

Mr.  Williams’s  success  with  high  wages  was  not 
merely  a  triumph  of  theory.  It  was  mainly  a  tri¬ 
umph  of  management.  Inspired  by  a  sound  idea  of 
the  relation  of  men  to  the  enterprise  he  directed,  he 
gave  close  and  personal  attention  to  the  conditions 
under  which  their  work  was  done;  he  studied  their 
needs  as  they  laboured  and  he  sought  in  every  way 
to  improve  both  the  factory  and  the  methods.  Vol¬ 
untarily  he  cut  his  hours  to  nine  twenty-five  years 
ago  when  practically  the  entire  labour  world  was  on 
a  ten-hour  day.  He  was  one  of  the  first  employers 
in  the  country  to  provide  baths  for  men  and  later  to 
arrange  that  shop  clothes  should  be  washed  on  the 
premises.  When  enlarging  his  plant  some  fifteen 
years  ago  he  left  space  for  club  rooms  to  be  used 
when  the  men  should  ask  for  them,  as  later  they  did. 
Medals  awarded  for  superior  product  were  hung  in 
the  club  rooms.  “  The  men  earned  them,”  was  Mr. 
Williams’s  reason  for  not  exhibiting  them  in  the 
offices. 

Efficiency,  in  Mr.  Williams’  opinion,  was  the  re¬ 
sult  of  friendly  co-operation  in  the  effort  to  keep  a 
business  in  the  front  rank.  He  was  one  of  several 
legitimate  forerunners  of  the  new  science  of  indus¬ 
trial  management.  This  science  which  is  doing 
much  to  revolutionise  both  the  practices  and  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  mind  of  employers  who  give  it  a  patient  and 
intelligent  test,  has  effected  no  more  radical  changes 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


203 


than  those  in  wages.  There  is  a  popular  notion 
that  the  increase  is  due  merely  to  cunning  devices  in 
speeding  up  workers.  The  old  superstition  that  the 
amount  of  work  a  man  can  do  depends  upon  the 
hours  you  can  keep  him  at  his  task  and  the  strength 
of  the  lash  with  which  you  drive  him  has  still  so 
strong  a  hold  on  both  labourers  and  employers  that 
the  first  explanation  for  the  increase  of  output  under 
scientific  management  has  been  “  a  new  form  of 
drive.” 

This  notion  can  only  be  overcome  by  carefully 
following  an  installation  of  the  system  by  a  compe¬ 
tent  engineer.  As  its  name  indicates,  the  new  sci¬ 
ence  concerns  itself  primarily  with  management. 
Its  attack  is  on  management,  not  merely  manage¬ 
ment  of  labour  but  management  of  every  element  in 
the  process  of  production.  As  a  fact  labour  is  not 
often  touched  until  many  months  after  the  reform  of 
management  is  begun. 

I  have  already  referred  in  Chapter  I  to  the  im¬ 
provements  in  shop  conveniences  which  is  always  one 
of  the  preliminary  steps  in  bringing  a  shop  under  the 
system.  Almost  the  first  attack  is  on  the  tools, 
chairs,  benches,  and  machines  a  worker  uses.  Are 
they  fitted  to  him?  Is  a  five-foot  man  using  a  shovel 
suitable  only  for  a  six-footer?  Is  a  short  girl  sitting 
on  a  chair  comfortable  only  for  a  tall  one?  Are 
heavy  irons  lifted  when  they  might  be  shoved?  The 
aim  is  to  fit  the  worker’s  equipment  to  him  as  shoe  or 
coat  is,  so  that  he  can  use  it  with  the  least  possible 
friction  and  waste  of  energy. 


204 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


What  the  worker  is  saved  in  wear  and  tear  by 
these  changes  goes  unconsciously  into  the  quantity 
of  his  product.  He  does  more  because  he  works 
more  freely  and  easily.  Of  course  the  worker  him¬ 
self  has  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  freeing  of  his 
power.  It  was  one  of  his  handicaps  for  which  man¬ 
agement  alone  was  responsible  and  which  manage¬ 
ment,  grown  wise,  has  removed. 

Again,  the  systematic,  orderly  and  time-saving 
handling  of  tools  and  supplies  to  which  reference  is 
made  in  Chapter  I  frees  the  worker  from  both  an¬ 
noyance  and  waste  time.  He  can  go  ahead  at  once 
with  work.  He  is  not  obliged  to  hunt  for  tools  or 
wait  for  supplies.  Here  again  his  product  suffered 
from  the  incompetency  of  management.  He  does 
more  under  the  new  system  because  the  management 
is  doing  something  which  obviously  was  part  of  its 
business,  but  to  which  it  had  never  given  careful 
thought  and  direction. 

Extraordinary  gains  for  the  worker  come  through 
scientific  methods  of  planning  and  routing  orders. 
Not  only  does  an  order  flow  through  the  shop  ac¬ 
cording  to  a  carefully  arranged  plan,  but  each  step 
in  the  operation  fits  into  the  one  preceding  and  the 
one  following.  A  comparison  of  what  happens  to 
a  job  under  the  old  hap-hazard  system  of  dumping 
it  into  a  shop  and  allowing  it  to  work  its  way  through, 
more  or  less  by  chance,  with  what  happens  under  the 
new  method  of  planning  and  routing  reveals  one 
great  reason  why  an  operative’s  output  is  increased. 


A  MAN’S  HIRE  20 5 

The  management  is  using  its  brains,  and  labour  is 
reaping  the  advantage. 

When  these  changes  have  been  thoroughly  worked 
out,  that  is,  when  equipment  and  supplies  have  been 
standardised  and  correct  increases  for  planning  and 
routing  work  installed,  it  is  possible  to  turn  attention 
to  the  worker.  It  is  for  attempting  to  set  tasks  for 
him  before  these  things  have  been  done  that  many  of 
the  worst  failures  in  the  system  have  come.  The 
conditions  under  which  he  is  working  are  changed. 
What  was  a  fair  day’s  work  is  no  longer  so,  but  what 
is  a  day’s  work?  What  ought  an  average  man  to 
do  under  the  new  system  and  new  conditions  ?  This 
is  a  legitimate  question.  But  the  new  manager  goes 
farther.  He  asks  whether  it  is  not  possible  to  im¬ 
prove  the  worker’s  methods  as  well  as  his  tools  and 
his  conditions.  Is  he  doing  his  task  in  the  easiest 
and  quickest  and  most  efficient  way?  He  can  only 
answer  this  as  he  answered  the  question  as  to  whether 
or  not  the  machinery  of  the  shop  was  the  best  pos¬ 
sible  for  the  work  it  had  to  do  —  by  study.  As  a 
rule  this  study  of  each  particular  task  in  a  shop  is 
carried  on  in  the  laboratory  or  experimental  room, 
not  on  the  factory  floor.  Where  the  machines  are 
very  large,  as  in  the  case  of  printing  presses  or  paper 
machines,  this  practice  is  not  possible,  but  the  excep¬ 
tions  are  few.  A  workman  is  selected  for  the  ex¬ 
periments,  and  is  told  that  if  he  will  co-operate  in 
their  making,  he  will  be  given  a  bonus. 

This  study  of  a  particular  task  is  highly  interest- 


206 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ing.  It  begins  by  separating  the  performance  into 
the  various  motions  of  which  it  is  composed,  and  by 
observing  each  of  these  motions  to  find  whether  or 
not  it  is  necessary,  and  whether  or  no,  if  necessary, 
it  is  the  simplest  and  therefore  quickest  motion  pos¬ 
sible.  Almost  invariably  by  this  analysis  it  is  found 
practical  to  eliminate  motions,  thus  saving  energy 
and  time.  Frequently  it  is  discovered  that  much 
simpler  motions  than  those  used  are  equally  effective. 
The  only  sure  way  of  fixing  which  of  several  possible 
motions  is  simplest  is  by  measuring  the  time  each 
takes.  This  is  done,  of  course,  by  means  of  a  stop¬ 
watch. 

When  unnecessary  motions  are  cut  from  the  task, 
and  the  simplest  way  of  performing  those  which  are 
necessary  found,  the  times  fixed  for  each  of  these  are 
added.  A  liberal  allowance  is  then  made  for  me¬ 
chanical  and  temperamental  delays  and  interference, 
and  the  result,  called  a  “  time-study,”  is  set  as  the 
proper  period  in  which  the  average  worker  should 
be  able  to  do  this  particular  piece  of  work.  He  is 
not  expected  to  accomplish  this  without  instruction. 
The  time  study  itself  is  printed  on  an  instruction 
card  which  is  given  the  worker.  He  is  taught  its 
meaning  and  aided  in  carrying  out  its  direction  by 
an  instructor  who  is  one  of  the  regular  staff  under  the 
new  system.  The  instructor’s  only  function  is  teach¬ 
ing  employes  how  to  work  properly,  and  in  seeing 
that  they  understand  and  are  following  the  time- 
studies.  Frequently  the  instruction  card  directs  the 
operative  in  case  he  finds  that  he  is  unable  to  make 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


207 


the  task  in  the  time  fixed  to  appeal  at  once  for  help, 
that  is,  it  is  not  true,  as  sometimes  claimed  by  those 
who  do  not  understand  the  meaning  of  time  studies 
and  instruction  cards,  that  the  worker  has  no  voice  in 
the  matter.  He  has,  must  have,  or  the  system  would 
fall  to  pieces. 

Having  fixed  the  time  for  each  task,  it  is  of  course 
easy  to  fix  how  much  work  can  be  asked  in  a  day, 
that  is,  it  is  not  difficult  to  calculate  what  a  day’s 
work  should  be  in  amount.  It  is  obvious,  however, 
that  there  would  be  little  hope  of  persuading  a  group 
of  operatives  to  follow  a  method  requiring  so  much 
more  attention  and  precision  in  order  to  turn  out  the 
day’s  work,  if  they  had  no  other  incentive  than  learn¬ 
ing  to  do  a  thing  in  a  new  and  better  way.  Giving 
them  an  incentive  in  the  form  of  an  increased  wage 
is  and  always  has  been  an  integral  part  of  scientific 
management.  This  wage  is  paid  in  various  ways. 
Mr.  Taylor’s  plan,  known  as  “  task  and  bonus,”  is 
to  pay  a  bonus  if  the  task  is  reached,  otherwise  to 
pay  the  day’s  wage  commonest  for  the  kind  of  work 
in  the  vicinity.  This  plan  naturally  will  not  give 
satisfaction  unless  the  task  is  fixed  so  that  the  aver¬ 
age  worker  who  really  tries  can  make  it  without  over 
fatigue.  The  success  depends  absolutely  on  his 
earning  his  premium.  When  he  fails  to  do  so,  he 
naturally  believes  the  task  is  set  too  high.  The  man¬ 
agement  which  is  as  much  interested  as  he  in  his  earn¬ 
ing  the  bonus  is  thus  compelled  to  look  into  the  time- 
study  as  well  as  into  the  worker’s  methods  and  to 
find  the  error,  if  there  is  one.  Sanford  C.  Thomp- 


208 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


son,  who  has  had  an  experience  of  some  twenty  years 
with  scientific  management,  declares  that  the  system 
once  installed  works  almost  automatically,  and  that 
a  very  small  proportion  of  operatives  fail  to  make 
their  bonus. 

The  bonus  is  usually  fixed  at  about  one-third  of 
the  day’s  wage  or,  in  case  of  piece  work,  at  about 
one-third  of  the  piece  rate.  Organised  labour 
charges  that  a  systematic  cutting  of  rates  goes  on 
under  the  system.  This  is  entirely  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  the  system  and  to  the  practice  where  I  have 
observed  it.  Indeed  it  would  be  fatal  in  the  long 
run. 

At  the  hearings  before  the  Industrial  Commission 
in  1914,  the  late  Mr.  James  Mapes  Dodge,  manager 
of  the  Link  Belt  Company  of  Philadelphia,  a  shop 
which  has  had  a  ten-years’  experience  with  scientific 
management,  introduced  certain  diaries  kept  by  one 
of  the  workingmen.  One  of  the  commissioners  ex¬ 
amining  the  books  called  attention  to  an  entry  which 
read : 

“  I  made  bushels  of  money  under  this  rate. 
Brown  said  I  did  not  do  it  honestly,  but  I  agreed  to 
pay  him  twelve  to  five  that  I  could  still  go  ahead  of 
that,  but  he  got  ‘  cold  feet.’  ” 

“  When  you  found  that  he  made  bushels  of 
money,”  the  commissioner  asked  Mr.  Dodge,  “  did 
you  cut  the  rate?  ” 

“  No,”  said  Mr.  Dodge,  “  we  would  not  dare  to 
cut  the  rate.  Scientific  management  would  evaporate 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


209 


like  snow  in  sunshine  if  we  did  not  keep  our  word  with 
the  men.” 

Henry  B.  Towne,  the  head  of  the  Yale  and  Towne 
Manufacturing  Company  of  Connecticut,  said  at  the 
hearings  before  the  Committee  on  Labour  in  the 
spring  of  1916  that  he  had  many  new  employes,  both 
men  and  women,  who  would  be  expected  under  pres¬ 
ent  conditions  to  earn  $2.25  to<  $2.50  a.day,  who  were 
earning  under  scientific  management  $4  to  $5  or 
even  as  high  as  $8  a  day.  These  people  were  on 
piece  work.  The  committee  obviously  suspected  that 
these  high  wages  would  mean  a  cutting  of  the  piece 
rate,  a  suspicion  born  of  their  entire  misconception 
of  the  system.  Mr.  Towne  said  in  answer  to  the 
question,  “  The  rate  per  unit  stands.  They  stand 
with  one  exception.  If  the  rates  are  complained 
about,  then  we  investigate  most  carefully.  We  see 
what  other  workers  on  the  same  job  have  to  say  about 
it;  we  review  our  experiments  and  tests  and  figures 
and  if  there  is  any  error,  it  is  corrected.  Excepting 
that,  the  rates  stand  until  there  is  some  change  in 
the  job.  If  we  introduce  new  machines  or  methods 
or  change  the  article  or  product,  then  the  rates  must 
be  reviewed.” 

Wherever  the  system  has  been  properly  installed, 
that  is,  where  the  principles  and  not  merely  the 
mechanism  are  followed,  wages  have  promptly  risen. 
In  certain  industries  where  the  wages  of  women  par¬ 
ticularly  have  been  notoriously  low,  the  results  have 
been  most  hopeful. 


210 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


I  confess  that  the  first  thing  that  has  ever  shed  a 
ray  of  light  into  my  mind  on  the  cotton  mill  — 
aside  from  legislation  which,  after  all,  is  only  a  war 
engine  compelling  men  to  do  this  or  not  to  do  that  — 
has  been  scientific  management. 

At  the  very  best,  spinning  and  weaving  are  wear¬ 
ing  processes.  The  difficulty  of  making  them  more 
tolerable  has  seemed  to  make  employers  the  more 
obstinate  about  changes;  they  have  often  had  fairly 
to  be  bludgeoned  into  proper  ventilation,  sanitation 
and  hours,  and  as  for  wages,  they  have  generally  been 
below  a  decent  standard  of  living  for  women  and  for 
men  with  families.  I  have  referred  to  certain  ease¬ 
ments  in  the  operations  which  scientific  management 
has  brought  about  in  the  one  cotton  mill  which  I  have 
seen  under  the  system. 

Compare  the  “  look  ”  of  the  girls  and  women 
there,  their  manners,  morals  and  health,  with  that  of 
many,  not  all,  of  the  Rhode  Island  or  Massachusetts 
factories  in  which  I  have  seen  them,  and  the  improve¬ 
ment  is  unbelievable.  The  better  wages  have  some¬ 
thing  to  do  with  this,  of  course;  but  the  cheerful 
lunch-room,  the  sympathetic  and  intelligent  nurse, 
the  rest-  and  first-aid  room,  amusements  and  clubs, 
all  aid. 

A  comparative  study  of  the  average  wages  and 
hours  in  cotton  mills  in  different  States  with  those  in 
this  mill  is  interesting.  The  hours  are  those  legal 
in  the  State  (55) — only  one  State  has  fewer, 
Massachusetts,  where  they  are  54.  The  average 
hours  for  the  country  are  57. 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


211 


One  of  the  first  differences  the  table  shows,  and 
an  important  one,  is  that  the  wages  of  men  and 
women  doing  the  same  work  are  equal.  It  must  be, 
if  a  standard  has  been  set.  The  wage  follows  this 
standard  and  sex  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  case. 

Equal  pay  is  possible  when  you  know  you  are  get¬ 
ting  equal  results,  not  guessing  at  it.  Outside  of 
these  mills,  according  to  this  table,  women  receive 
12  3-10  cents  an  hour  as  spinners,  men  14  8-10  cents. 
In  the  mills  both  receive  16  8-10  cents  —  and  look 
after  three  instead  of  four  frames.  The  average 
wage  for  weavers  in  the  country  is  16  4-10  (a  half 
cent  less  for  women).  At  these  mills  it  is  25  cents 
for  both  for  four  looms,  and  17^3  for  two  narrow 
looms. 

It  is  interesting,  in  connection  with  the  charge  that 
the  wage  scale  is  the  result  of  speeding  both  opera¬ 
tives  and  machines,  to  learn  that  in  several  cases 
speeds  were  reduced  in  order  to  get  the  best  results. 
For  instance,  spinners  formerly  cared  for  800 
spindles  and  8  sides.  It  was  found  they  could  turn 
out  more  and  better  work  with  600  spindles  and  6 
sides.  The  revolutions  per  minute  of  the  spinning 
spindles  were  reduced  from  8,800  to  7,600,  simply 
because  it  was  a  more  efficient  speed. 

Too  strong  emphasis  cannot  be  placed  on  the  fact 
that  the  increase  in  wages  under  a  true  scientific  man¬ 
agement  is  not  the  result  of  “  Drive.”  The  speed 
at  which  the  product  is  turned  out  is  fixed  always 
after  careful  observation.  Common  sense  should 
tell  one  that  employers  do  not  take  from  three  to 


212 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


five  years  to  install  a  system  in  their  business,  spend 
possibly  tens  of  thousands  of  dollars,  educate  hun¬ 
dreds  of  people,  and  then  ruin  the  whole  thing  at 
once  by  killing  off  the  men  and  women  on  whom  they 
depend.  Nothing  could  be  more  unscientific  than 
that. 

The  worker  cannot  be  speeded  under  this  system. 
He  must  follow  a  steady,  unhurried  gait.  He  must 
have  an  intelligent  control  of  his  mind;  he  cannot  be 
in  an  unnerved  or  excited  condition.  That  at  once 
makes  him  unfit  for  his  task.  An  intelligent  fore¬ 
man  under  this  system,  if  he  sees  that  a  worker  is 
showing  signs  of  nervous  agitation  or  strain,  insists 
that  he  rest.  In  many  shops  where  an  operation 
must  be  put  through  on  schedule  time  workmen  are 
practically  compelled  to  take  ten  or  fifteen  minutes 
off  now  and  then  out  of  their  chairs,  to  break  the 
tension  that  working  on  a  set  schedule  causes. 

The  men  and  women  making  the  highest  wage 
under  this  system  usually  work  in  a  leisurely  way. 
At  the  cotton  mills  I  watched  a  nervous  young  Italian 
girl  at  a  spinning  frame.  She  ran  up  and  down  the 
frame,  flew  from  spindle  to  spindle,  and  filled  the  air 
with  useless  motions.  She  was  not  content  to  watch 
her  own  frame,  but  seeing  something  wrong  with  that 
of  another  girl  darted  at  that.  She  gave  the  impres¬ 
sion  of  terrific  speeding.  On  the  opposite  side  a 
girl  of  calmer  temperament  worked  leisurely  at  the 
same  number  of  spindles.  These  two  girls  were 
earning  the  same  wage. 

Usually,  however,  where  a  girl  works  in  this  ex- 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


213 


cited  fashion  she  earns  less.  For  instance,  in  the 
Clothcraft  Shop  of  Cleveland  I  took  pains  to  com¬ 
pare  the  daily  pay-cards  of  girls  that  I  saw  work¬ 
ing  w7ith  unusual  ease  and  those  who  seemed  to  be 
speeding.  Without  exception  I  found  that  the 
former  were  earning  more  than  their  straining  sis¬ 
ters.  I  spoke  of  this  to  the  manager  and  certain 
of  the  teachers,  and  they  assured  me  that  the  girl 
who  drove  herself  was  an  undesirable  operative. 

In  a  wire-making  room  of  one  of  the  factories  of 
the  National  Lamp  Company,  I  once  examined  the 
posted  reports  of  the  daily  output  of  a  large  num¬ 
ber  of  girls.  Day  after  day  one  little  Hungarian 
stood  at  the  head.  I  watched  her  for  some  time. 
She  gave  the  impression  of  actually  loafing  over  her 
machine. 

Colonel  Wheeler  tells  me  that  after  scientific  man¬ 
agement  was  installed  at  the  Watertown  Arsenal 
they  were  obliged  to  change  their  estimate  of  the 
working  capacity  of  many  men.  Not  having  for¬ 
merly  any  adequate  measure  of  work,  the  foreman 
often  took  it  for  granted  that  a  man  who  seemed  to 
be  doing  nothing  was  doing  nothing,  and  tried  to 
drive  him.  The  result  was  that  men  fell  into  the 
habit  of  appearing  busy  when  watched. 

If  the  superintendent  or  inspectors  appeared  a 
whistle  went  around  the  shop  and  every  man  began 
to  perform  unnecessary  motions  in  order  to  look 
busy!  Whether  a  man  appears  busy  or  not  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  case  under  this  system.  It  is 
the  work  he  turns  out  which  tells,  and  there  is  an  ab- 


214 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


solute  measure  of  that.  The  difference  with  which 
the  worker  regards  the  visits  of  the  management  is 
one  of  the  first  changes  in  shop  temper  which  a  vis¬ 
itor  familiar  with  factory  and  shop  forces  notices. 

The  experience  of  the  Clothcraft  Shop  of  Cleve¬ 
land  with  wages  under  scientific  management  has  been 
remarkable.  It  is  an  old  concern,  the  oldest  in  the 
country.  The  present  manager,  Richard  Feiss, 
brought  to  the  shop  an  unusual  equipment.  He  was 
graduated  a  few  years  ago  from  the  Harvard  Law 
School,  and  after  a  short  turn  at  the  law  he  con¬ 
cluded  he  would  prefer  to  go  into  business,  and  re¬ 
turned  to  Cleveland. 

He  seemed  never  to  have  regretted  his  law  course, 
however.  I  have  heard  him  say  that  he  learned 
more  about  making  clothes  in  the  Harvard  Law 
School  than  he  ever  did  anywhere  else.  His  theory 
was,  on  entering  the  business,  to  learn  to  do  every¬ 
thing  that  was  done  in  the  factory.  And  this  he 
literally  did.  He  spent  three  months  on  the  various 
processes.  At  the  end  of  the  time  he  is  reported 
to  have  appeared  before  certain  dignified  members 
of  his  family  with  a  suit  of  clothes  on  his  arm. 
“What  do  you  think  of  them?”  he  said.  They 
were  looked  over  and  pronounced  fairly  good. 
“  Why?  ”  they  asked.  “  Well,”  he  said,  “  I  made 
’em!” 

Mr.  Feiss  handles  a  difficult  labour  group.  Of 
the  828  persons  in  the  shop  in  the  summer  of  1914 
over  half  were  foreign  born.  They  come  as  a  rule 
without  experience,  often  speaking  no  English. 


215 


Recent  Effect  on  Wages:  Production  Costs  and  Hours  of  Scientific  Management  in  the  Cloth- 

craft  Shop  of  Cleveland,  Ohio. 


2l6 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


They  have  all  to  learn.  The  theory  of  the  shop  is 
that  they  are  worth  teaching;  and,  moreover,  that 
the  more  they  know,  the  healthier  and  happier  they 
are,  the  better  “pants”  they  will  make;  also,  the 
better  “  pants  ”  they  make  the  better  citizens  they 
will  be ! 

Mr.  Feiss’s  theory  of  what  a  proper  workshop 
does  for  a  force  and  his  reduction  of  hours  have  al¬ 
ready  been  referred  to.  On  page  2 1 5  is  a  table  show¬ 
ing  the  effect  his  system  has  had  on  wages.  Starting 
with  the  basic  wage  in  Cleveland  in  the  industry, 
this  table  shows  that  in  6  years  —  June,  1910,  to 
June,  1916,  the  hourly  wages  in  the  shop  have  in¬ 
creased  69  per  cent.,  the  weekly  49  per  cent.  This 
is  a  greater  increase  than  is  usually  found  under  scien¬ 
tific  management.  It  is  due  to  the  greater  emphasis 
Mr.  Feiss  places  upon  the  human  relation,  the  more 
attention  he  gives  to  health  and  happiness. 

An  interesting  feature  of  this  table  is  the  relative 
gain  of  employers  and  employes  it  shows.  It  is  quite 
generally  charged  that  the  system  gives  the  lion’s 
share  of  the  increase  in  profits  to  the  owners.  In 
this  case  the  two  have  kept  fairly  close  together, 
labour  being  ahead  up  to  1913.  Since  that  time  the 
decrease  in  cost  is  giving  Mr.  Feiss  a  slight  advan¬ 
tage. 

In  the  cottom  mills  referred  to  above  the  practice 
is  to  divide  the  increase  with  labour.  For  instance, 
if  a  department  which  had  been  turning  out  1,000 
pounds  daily  under  the  old  system  raised  it  to  1,200 
under  the  new,  20  per  cent,  was  added  to  wages. 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


217 


Mr.  Dodge,  of  the  Link  Belt  Company,  told  the 
Industrial  Commission  that,  while  fully  70  per  cent, 
had  been  added  to  wages,  the  dividends  had  been  in¬ 
creased  only  about  two  per  cent.  But  there  were 
other  gains  to  the  management  which  Mr.  Dodge 
considered  tremendous  —  a  better  quality  of  output, 
a  lower  price  to  the  consumer,  increased  facility  in 
handling  orders.  “  We  get  86  per  cent,  of  our  work 
on  time  now;  formerly  we  were  behind  with  86  per 
cent.” 

At  the  government  arsenal  at  Watertown,  Massa¬ 
chusetts,  where  the  Taylor  system  has  been  on  trial 
since  1911,  there  has  been  an  increase  of  fully  25 
per  cent,  in  wages  wherever  it  has  been  possible  to 
adopt  the  system.  At  the  same  time  there  has  been 
a  substantial  reduction  in  the  cost  of  production. 
General  Crozier,  Chief  of  Ordnance,  declares  that 
this  has  been  done  without  overexertion,  and  both 
the  look  of  the  men  in  the  plant  and  the  records  of 
time  lost  because  of  illness  bear  him  out.  Neverthe¬ 
less,  there  is  a  determined  attempt  making  to  drive 
the  system  from  all  government  factories. 

In  the  spring  of  1915  Congress  passed  a  rider  to 
the  Army  bill  forbidding  that  any  part  of  the  ap¬ 
propriation  in  the  bill  be  used  to  pay  premiums  or 
bonuses  to  employes  in  government  plants.  As 
soon  as  this  bill  was  passed  by  the  Senate,  but  before 
it  had  become  a  law,  General  Crozier  suspended 
premium  payments  at  the  Frankford  Arsenal,  Phila¬ 
delphia.  A  protest  signed  by  several  hundred  em¬ 
ployes  was  sent  at  once  to  General  Crozier.  It  not 


2l8 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


only  showed  what  these  employes  thought  of  the 
system,  but  what  they  were  making  under  it. 

1.  The  premium  system  of  payment  was  established  in 
the  manufacture  of  small-arms  ammunition  about  five  years 
ago,  and  that  there  was  a  complete  understanding  between 
ourselves  and  the  management  of  the  arsenal  that  there 
would  be  no  reduction  of  the  premium  rates  while  the  manu¬ 
facturing  processes  remain  the  same.  This  agreement  has 
been  lived  up  to  by  the  management  and  by  ourselves  and 
to  the  mutual  satisfaction  of  all  concerned. 

2.  We  believe  that  this  system  has  been  eminently  suc¬ 
cessful,  because,  according  to  published  reports,  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  small-arms  ammunition  at  Frankford  Arsenal 
presents  a  decided  economy  when  compared  with  costs  of 
the  same  ammunition  procured  from  private  manufacturers. 

3.  The  premium  earned  by  all  the  employes  engaged  in 
the  manufacture  of  small-arms  ammunition  during  the 
month  of  December,  1914,  has  amounted  to  $3,747.72,  or 
to  approximately  $45,000  for  the  year,  and  therefore  the 
abolishing  of  the  premium  system  means  an  annual  loss  to 
us  of  approximately  $45,000. 

At  the  present  writing  there  is  a  bill  before  Con¬ 
gress  forbidding  the  use  of  the  stop  watch  and  the 
payment  of  premiums  in  government  plants  under 
penalty  of  fine  or  imprisonment.  The  bill  shows 
complete  ignorance  of  how  and  why  the  stop-watch 
is  used.  It  states  that  it  is  held  over  a  man  “  while 
at  work  ”  to  find  out  the  largest  amount  the  “  most 
capable  man  ”  can  do  in  a  given  time,  and  it  de¬ 
clares  that  by  premiums  and  severe  discipline  this 
standard  time  is  enforced,  and  that  if  the  workman 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


219 


fails  to  reach  it,  he  loses  his  employment.  This  bill 
is  wrong  in  every  essential  point.  The  stop-watch 
is  used  in  the  laboratory,  not  held  over  a  man  while 
he  is  doing  a  piece  of  work.  Its  part  in  the  task  is 
over  then.  It  comes  in  at  the  preparatory  stage, 
when  the  task  is  being  studied  and  the  proper  time  in 
which  to  do  it  fixed. 

I  have  spent  many,  many  hours  watching  men  and 
women  working  under  this  system,  and  I  have  never 
but  twice  seen  a  stop-watch  used  in  shop  or  factory. 
In  one  case  the  instructor  was  studying  a  new  piece 
of  work  in  order  to  find  in  what  time  each  of  its  vari¬ 
ous  parts  should  be  done.  He  and  the  workman 
were  in  friendly  consultation;  that  is,  they  stopped 
more  than  once  to  debate  a  point.  The  stop-watch 
attracted  no  more  attention  than  the  tools  the  man 
handled. 

In  another  case,  so  the  foreman  told  me,  a  girl 
thought  her  instruction  card  was  wrong;  that  is,  she 
thought  the  time  which  had  been  set  as  a  fair  aver¬ 
age  in  which  to  do  a  certain  part  of  her  task  was  too 
short.  She  had  questioned  it,  and  the  instructor, 
stop-watch  in  hand,  was  examining  into  the  cause  of 
her  dissatisfaction. 

Again,  the  time  of  a  task  is  far  from  being  the 
fastest  of  the  most  capable  man.  After  the  good 
average  workman  has  been  timed  and  his  standard 
found,  a  very  liberal  allowance,  often  as  much  as 
two-thirds,  is  allowed  in  order  to  make  the  period 
fixed  reasonable  for  the  average  man.  As  for  disci¬ 
pline  in  case  of  failure,  I  never  heard  of  any  save 


220 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  loss  of  the  premium,  and  the  management  re¬ 
gards  that  failure  as  its  own,  as  explained  above. 

It  is  probable  that  most  of  the  opposition  to  the 
system  comes  from  ignorance,  and  that  the  ignorance 
comes  from  a  failure  of  the  management  to  explain 
frankly  to  employes  at  the  start  the  meaning  and 
bearing  of  the  experiments  they  are  about  to  make. 
When  the  New  England  Butt  Company  was  put 
under  the  Taylor  system,  the  management  and  ex¬ 
perts  held  weekly  open  meetings,  to  which  everybody 
in  the  shop  was  invited.  There,  every  attempt  was 
made  to  explain  to  the  men  the  principles  and  ma¬ 
chinery  of  the  undertaking.  There  was  no  mystery, 
no  evasion.  Every  man  who  wanted  to  ask  ques¬ 
tions,  to  make  a  speech,  to  criticise,  had  his  opening. 
Such  a  procedure,  at  once  democratic  and  educational, 
disarmed  suspicion  and  prejudice  and  interested  the 
workers. 

At  the  Plimpton  Press  at  Norwood,  Massachu¬ 
setts,  the  time  studies  are  kept  posted  near  the  ma¬ 
chines  on  which  the  particular  operations  are  to  be 
carried  out.  The  workers  become  familiar  with 
them,  discuss  them,  and  if  there  is  a  particular  factor 
in  the  analysis  which  they  consider  wrong  they  have 
the  right  to  challenge  its  reasonableness. 

Every  experiment  which  promises  to  throw  light 
on  the  hard  problem  of  fitting  rewards  to  services 
should  be  welcomed  by  all  honest  men  and  tested 
with  good  will  and  fairness.  No  man  who  looks 
over  the  productive  world  to-day  and  compares  the 
returns  the  various  factors  receive  can  escape  the 


A  MAN’S  HIRE 


221 


feeling  that  we  are  working  in  a  bewildering  fog, 
where  small  things  often  loom  like  giants  and  great 
ones  turn  to  pigmies.  We  have  great  fortunes  which 
all  the  world  recognises  as  the  result  of  cunning,  of 
unfair  privileges,  of  daring  gambling,  of  brazen  mis¬ 
representation,  and  by  their  side  are  tens  of  thou¬ 
sands  of  men  who  have  worked  faithfully  from  boy¬ 
hood  to  old  age  on  a  daily  wage  which  barely  gave 
them  food  and  shelter,  and  left  them  at  the  end  at 
the  mercy  of  the  world.  The  quality  of  service  ren¬ 
dered  by  those  two  groups  cannot  be  compared,  so 
far  superior  is  that  of  the  labourer.  We  may  call 
these  the  accidents,  not  the  rule,  yet  they  are  famil¬ 
iar  enough  to  seem  to  many  the  rule.  In  any  case, 
they  are  grotesque  injustices  which  it  is  the  business 
of  an  intelligent  society  to  correct  and  prevent. 

Scientific  management,  while  it  does  not  touch 
the  basic  wage,  simply  regards  it  as  a  starting-point, 
does  recognise  the  most  important  of  all  principles 
in  this  matter  of  measuring  the  daily  service,  and 
that  is  the  relation  of  the  amount  and  quality  of  a 
man’s  work  to  what  he  gets.  It  is  the  greatest  con¬ 
tribution  to  the  wage  question  since  the  day  it  was 
settled,  for  this  country  at  least,  that  every  man  has 
a  right  to  the  fruit  of  his  labours,  however  ridicu¬ 
lously  inadequate  that  fruit  may  be. 


CHAPTER  IX 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 

Among  the  many  experiments  in  human  relations 
which  the  new  American  man  of  business  is  making, 
there  is  none  more  difficult  and  none  more  noble  than 
that  of  finding  a  just  measure  for  the  value  of  the 
service  each  worker  renders  in  an  undertaking.  It 
is  the  greatest  voluntary  experiment  in  justice  that 
the  present  world  offers. 

Certain  attempts  to  break  up  the  purely  arbitrary 
wage  scale  were  touched  on  in  the  last  chapter.  The 
contention  there  was  that  a  uniform  wage,  though  it 
be  the  highest  current,  is  not  just,  because  it  is  not 
fitted  to  bring  out  the  varying  abilities  of  men. 
There  must  be  a  method  of  paying  adjusted  to  the 
possible  quality  and  quantity  of  a  man’s  output  — 
something  which  will  stimulate  him  and  satisfy  his 
sense  of  justice. 

But  even  when  we  have  reached  a  satisfactory 
method  of  fixing  the  basic  wage  and  have  added  to 
that  the  wisest  way  of  measuring  the  extra  daily 
service  a  man  may  give,  there  still  remains  some¬ 
thing  for  which  a  workman  who  stays  by  a  business 
for  a  period  of  time  is  not  paid,  something  which 
the  great  majority  of  employers  of  all  kinds,  public 
and  private,  never  have  taken  into  consideration.  It 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


223 


is  an  intangible  service,  but  essential  and  undeniable; 
it  is  what  he  contributes  to  building  up  the  good  will 
of  the  business. 

“  Good  will  ”  is  a  curious  thing  compounded  of 
friendliness,  experience,  character  of  workmanship, 
established  relations.  A  self-respecting  workman 
who  over  a  long  period  has  talked  proudly  of  “  our 
shop,”  “  our  old  man,”  “  our  goods,”  has  helped 
drive  that  business  into  a  community.  In  an  under¬ 
taking  like  a  department  store,  the  satisfaction  and 
pride  of  the  women  and  girls  in  the  place  is  recog¬ 
nised  as  one  of  its  real  assets.  The  importance  of  a 
stable  pay  roll  can  hardly  be  over-emphasised.  It 
does  not  matter  how  humble  the  task,  if  it  is  a  task 
essential  to  turning  out  the  product  it  costs  some¬ 
thing  to  educate  the  doer.  Every  change  is  an  in¬ 
terruption;  every  change  starts  friction  which  runs 
through  the  whole  body. 

How  is  a  stable  force  to  be  secured?  There  is 
only  one  way,  and  that  is  to  overcome  the  motives 
for  change,  replace  them  by  motives  for  staying. 
The  same  reasons  that  make  men  and  women  restless 
in  professions,  in  society,  in  schools  and  churches, 
make  them  restless  in  factories  and  mills  and  shops. 

Why  do  you  not  stay  in  your  law  firm,  your  col¬ 
lege,  your  bank?  It  may  be  because  you  are  asked 
to  work  in  rooms  so  badly  ventilated  that  you  know 
your  health  is  suffering.  It  may  be  because  the  pay 
is  the  lowest  and  the  hours  the  longest  that  the  man¬ 
agement  dares  impose;  because  there  is  no  advance¬ 
ment  before  you,  because  you  know  if  you  do  stay  on 


224 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  day  will  come  when  you  will  be  cast  into  the  dump 
heap  of  the  worn-out  —  with  not  so  much  as  a 
month’s  pay  to  help  you  in  readjusting  yourself. 

It  may  be  that  the  spirit  of  the  place  is  sullen, 
harsh,  suspicious,  with  no  friendly  looks  at  the  end 
of  the  hard  days,  no  sympathy  in  times  of  trouble, 
no  respect  for  independence  and  ambition. 

These  are  sound  reasons  for  restlessness  in  men 
and  women.  Remove  them,  and  the  men  readily 
respond,  whether  they  be  labourers  in  the  yards, 
clerks  in  the  counting-room,  or  preachers  in  the  pul¬ 
pit. 

Five  years  ago  the  Clothcraft  Shop  of  Cleveland, 
already  one  of  the  best  working  places  in  the  town, 
was  hiring  1,570  workers  a  year  to  keep  up  a  force 
of  1,060.  Then  its  present  manager,  Richard  Feiss, 
undertook  to  organise  it  on  a  scientific  basis.  The 
shops  were  made  as  bright  and  as  comfortable  as  he 
knew  how  to  make  them;  the  tasks  were  taught  the 
newcomers  by  instructors  hired  for  that  purpose,  op¬ 
portunities  for  earning  more  and  for  steady  advance¬ 
ment  offered,  and  everybody  was  shown  how  to  take 
advantage  of  them;  hours  were  shortened.  Life  in 
the  factory  was  organised  for  health  and  happiness 
—  with  what  result?  More  work  is  being  done 
to-day  by  20  per  cent,  fewer  people  and  the  “  labour 
turn-over  ”  has  fallen  66  2-3  per  cent. 

At  the  Ford  Motor  Works,  in  December,  1912, 
3,594  of  the  5,678  men  hired  turned  out  to  be  “  float¬ 
ers,”  “  five-day  men,”  as  those  who  come  only  to 
go  are  called.  A  month  after  the  profit  sharing 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


225 


scheme  was  announced,  the  new  practices  in  fitting 
men  to  their  tasks  installed,  these  floaters  fell  to 
322! 

There  never  was  a  more  foundationless  tradition 
than  that  working  men  and  women  do  not  respond 
to  efforts  to  make  the  conditions  under  which  they 
labour  more  wholesome,  decent,  and  just.  They  re¬ 
spond  as  quickly  as  other  groups  of  human  beings. 

The  failure  of  business  to  recognise  long  terms 
of  service  suitably  causes  peculiar  bitterness  among 
working  people,  because  the  results  are  usually  so 
tragic.  Can  there  be  an  experience  more  calculated 
to  make  a  young  man  of  education  and  efficiency  ques¬ 
tion  the  industrial  organisation  of  the  country  than, 
—  after  giving  his  first  fresh  years  of  enthusiasm  to 
an  undertaking, —  to  find  himself  summarily  laid  off 
with  no  recognition  of  the  extra  service  he  knows  he 
has  been  contributing  to  the  business?  Yet  how 
much  better  he  is  off  than  the  workingman  suddenly 
dismissed,  without  even  the  word  of  explanation  the 
former  will  have  received. 

And  if  this  is  hard  for  young  men,  how  much  worse 
it  is  for  those  of  sixty  and  seventy.  Rarely  do  I  go 
into  an  industrial  community  that  I  do  not  meet  old 
men  who  after  thirty  or  forty  years  of  service  have 
been  dropped — “  Too  old,”  “  Worn  out,”  “  He  has 
had  good  wages  but  saved  nothing.  His  own  fault.” 

These  are  the  explanations.  They  do  not  explain. 
They  are  no  more  adequate  than  to  say  of  the  man 
hopelessly  crippled  in  a  factory:  “It  was  a  bad 
accident,  but  we  were  not  negligent.”  The  one 


226 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


man’s  life  has  been  wrought  into  the  factory,  as  the 
other  man’s  limb  has  been  sacrificed  to  it,  and  the 
factory  has  an  obligation  to  each.  It  cannot  use  all 
that  is  profitable  in  a  human  being  and  then  cast  him 
adrift  —  part  of  the  price  it  must  pay  is  finding  him 
a  safe  mooring. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  what  is  called  profit 
sharing  meets  or  at  least  ought  to  meet,  the  obliga¬ 
tion  incurred  by  long  service.  It  all  depends  upon 
the  form  and  motive  of  the  scheme.  Most  profit 
sharing  has  no  other  purpose  than  to  increase  profits. 
That  is,  it  is  designed  to  stimulate  workers  to  use 
more  fully  their  capacity.  It  has  the  same  object 
as  piece  rates  and  bonuses  and  premiums. 

Mr.  George  A.  Chace,  the  administrator  of  one  of 
the  oldest  and  most  successful  of  these  undertakings, 
that  of  the  Bourne  Mills,  at  Fall  River,  Massachu¬ 
setts,  used  to  speak  of  the  profit  he  paid  out  as  “  in¬ 
terest  on  interest.”  “  It  seems  no  more  than  right,” 
he  once  wrote  to  the  employes,  “  that  it  should  be 
made  clear  to  every  one  expecting  a  share  in  the 
profits  that  there  is  no  intention  on  our  part  to  make 
free  gifts  of  money  for  nothing,  but  rather  that  every 
payment  is  the  carrying  out  of  a  distinct  agreement, 
or  contract,  under  which  both  parties  to  it  are  hop¬ 
ing  for  mutual  benefit.” 

And  again  he  wrote :  “  You  can  best  express  your 

appreciation  of  profit  sharing  by  earning  more  pay. 
This  does  not  mean  that  you  will  have  to  work 
harder  —  hard  work  brings  poor  wages  —  but, 
rather  by  attention  and  skill,  take  the  ‘  stitch  in  time 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


227 


that  saves  nine.’  If  by  a  little  more  care  and  watch¬ 
fulness  you  can  earn  40  or  50  cents  more  a  week,  it 
equals  5  per  cent,  advance  in  wages.  Thus  you  get 
the  extra  pay,  and  we  get  the  extra  production. 
That  is  the  secret  of  profit  sharing.” 

This  scheme  for  paying  “  interest  ”  succeeded  at 
the  Bourne  Mills.  But  it  was  not  the  extra  money 
alone  to  which  the  success  was  due.  A  few  years  ago 
I  spent  some  days  in  Fall  River  at  a  time  of  serious 
industrial  depression.  Practically  every  plant  was 
closed,  among  others  the  Bourne  Mills. 

I  talked  to  many  operatives  about  conditions,  and 
I  was  struck  by  the  number  who  quoted  this  factory. 
“They  try  to  do  right  over  there;”  “They  take 
you  in;”  “They  share  their  profits;”  “They  ex¬ 
plain  things.”  These  were  some  of  the  evidences 
I  found  of  a  more  friendly  feeling  for  the  concern 
than  for  others. 

I  wondered  that  the  small  extra  sum  that  each  re¬ 
ceived  in  profits  and  the  efforts  I  know  the  mill  had 
made  to  keep  its  wheels  running  could  win  quite  as 
genuine  a  friendliness  as  I  thought  I  detected.  It 
was  only  recently,  when  there  came  into  my  hands  the 
series  of  letters  from  which  I  have  just  quoted, 
written  semi-annually  to  the  employes  by  the  late 
treasurer,  George  A.  Chace,  that  I  understood. 

Here  was  proof  that  the  operatives  were,  as  they 
said,  considered  as  part  of  the  enterprise,  that  satis¬ 
fying  one  obligation  did  not  mean  that  the  company 
thought  no  more  of  their  claims  and  needs.  On  the 
contrary,  the  letters  show  that  Mr.  Chace  and  the 


228 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Board  continually  studied  and  tried  to  solve  the  prob¬ 
lems  which  profit  sharing  disclosed. 

There  are  other  plants  in  the  country  where  the 
same  form  of  profit  sharing  has  been  tried  for  as 
long  and  is  regarded  as  a  success.  But  for  every  ten 
places  it  has  succeeded  there  have  been  ninety,  prob¬ 
ably,  wrhere  it  has  failed. 

There  have  been  many  reasons  for  these  failures. 
Mr.  Frederick  Taylor  once  gave  the  best  in  a  public 
address  on  profit  sharing:  “  The  average  working¬ 
man  cannot  look  forward  more  than  a  month  to 
profits.”  “  Hope  deferred  maketh  the  heart  sick.” 

If  you  are  working  over  a  loom  eight  hours  a  day, 
you  will  hardly  remind  yourself  hourly  that  the  extra 
wage  you  will  get  six  months  or  a  year  from  now  is 
going  to  depend  on  the  extra  efforts  you  make  at  the 
moment.  But  if  you  have  a  pay  card  at  your  side 
on  which  your  hourly  wage  is  shown,  you  will  prob¬ 
ably  make  the  effort  to  earn  your  premium  —  par¬ 
ticularly  if  you  know  it  will  be  put  into  your  envelope 
on  Saturday  night.  Profits  paid  in  money  at  the  end 
of  the  year  can  never  be  as  real  and  constant  a  stimu¬ 
lus  to  workers  as  piece  work  or  premium. 

Nor  is  this  form  of  profit  sharing  often  useful  in 
providing  for  the  evil  days  which  old  age  brings  to  so 
many  of  those  who  live  by  the  wage  system.  This 
has  been  a  sore  disappointment  to  many  an  employer 
wrho,  in  adopting  it,  has  had  a  notion  that  by  so 
doing  he  was  meeting  all  his  obligations  to  his  em¬ 
ploye  —  besides  doing  a  generous  deed  !  He  argues 
that  the  profits  will  be  set  aside  as  a  nest  egg,  and 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


229 


that  by  the  time  the  worker  is  superannuated  he  will 
have  a  tidy  sum  to  carry  him  through  his  old  age, 
and  bury  him. 

If  it  worked  out  that  way,  he  might  have  reason 
for  feeling  the  business  was  supporting  the  faith¬ 
ful  servant  to  the  end.  But  the  first  shock  to  the  en¬ 
thusiastic  employer  is  that  the  worker  does  not  take 
this  view  of  it.  He  does  not  see  any  more  reason 
for  saving  this  increment  than  saving  a  share  of  his 
daily  wages.  It  is  wages,  pay  for  extra  daily  serv¬ 
ice.  It  has  no  relation  to  what  he  earns  by  staying 
with  the  business  for  a  term  of  years.  He  spends  his 
money  as  soon  as  he  receives  it  —  and  often  be¬ 
fore. 

At  the  big  Crane  works  in  Chicago  the  ten  thou¬ 
sand  or  more  employes  have  been  receiving  at  Christ¬ 
mas  time  for  fifteen  years  a  dividend  of  ten  per  cent, 
in  wages;  everybody  in  the  place  at  the  time  receives 
it.  It  is  regarded  by  the  management  as  part  of  its 
“  policy.”  They  believe  it  contributes  to  efficiency 
and  peace.  But  the  opinion  of  those  in  the  plant 
best  fitted  to  know  is  that  this  dividend  is  spent  before 
received;  that  it  is  rarely  regarded  by  the  working¬ 
men  as  a  nest  egg. 

Fels  and  Company  of  Philadelphia,  widely  known 
as  open-minded  employers,  always  willing  to  try  an 
experiment,  have  had  a  form  of  profit  sharing  for 
some  twelve  years.  They  regard  it  as  “  a  great  thing 
in  handling  people.”  But  they  do  not  consider  it 
entirely  satisfactory,  largely  because  those  receiving 
it  count  on  it  from  year  to  year,  and  make  use  of  it 


230 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


in  advance,  instead  of  saving  it.  That  is,  it  has  been 
good  for  the  management  but  not  so  good  for  the 
employes ! 

With  the  realisation  that  the  extra  wage  was  not 
being  used  providently,  and  that  something  further 
must  be  done  if  old  age  was  to  be  cared  for,  many 
employers  have  abandoned  the  scheme.  There  has 
been  a  vast  amount  of  hopeful  experimenting 
dropped  in  our  industries  because  employes  acted 
like  average  human  beings  and  not  like  superior  be¬ 
ings,  as  the  employers  expected  them  to  do. 

Why  workingmen,  whose  bare  necessities  so  gen¬ 
erally  outstrip  their  means  and  whose  legitimate 
wants  rarely  be  satisfied,  should  exercise  a  foresight 
that  we  do  not  get  in  more  easily-placed  groups  has 
never  been  satisfactorily  demonstrated.  They  do 
not  do  it  for  the  same  reason  the  more  comfortable 
do  not  do  it,  because  they  are  ordinary  human  beings, 
by  whom  thrift  is  as  far  from  being  generally  prac¬ 
tised  as  it  is  from  being  generally  appreciated  as  an 
interesting  game. 

The  form  of  profit  sharing  which  may  fairly  lay  a 
certain  claim  to  meet  the  obligation  that  a  business 
incurs  from  long-term  service  is  that  which  is  paid 
in  stock.  It  is  a  device  which  in  a  degree  brings  the 
employes  into  the  enterprise,  giving  them  an  invest¬ 
ment  as  permanent  as  the  business  is,  and  whatever 
power  in  the  undertaking  stockholding  gives  —  a 
power  which  in  time,  it  is  easy  to  see,  might  become 
great,  if  not  controlling. 

There  are  to-day  a  number  of  these  stock  owner- 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


231 


ship  plans,  operating  to  the  satisfaction  of  both  sides 
to  the  bargain.  The  one  which  has  stood  the  longest 
test  of  time,  and  which  has  recognised  most  fully  that 
a  man’s  needs  are  not  necessarily  met  because  he  has 
a  regular  wage  and  a  share  in  profits  into  the  bargain, 
is  that  of  the  Nelson  Manufacturing  Company,  of 
Edwardsville,  Illinois.  It  is  an  experiment  in  jus¬ 
tice,  born  of  a  face-to-face  experience  with  the  work¬ 
ings  of  injustice. 

The  founder  of  the  concern  was  manufacturing  in 
St.  Louis  in  the  seventies  when  the  great  railroad 
strikes  tied  up  the  country.  He  weathered  them,  but 
determined  that,  as  far  as  his  business  was  concerned, 
the  conditions  which  made  war  in  industry  inevitable 
for  thinking  workingmen  must  be  avoided.  He  went 
at  the  question  thoroughly,  adopting  plans  which, 
on  the  whole,  are  the  most  comprehensive  which  have 
been  tried  in  this  country  for  as  long  a  period  as 
twenty-five  years. 

Mr.  Nelson  began  by  moving  his  plant  some  fifty 
miles  from  St.  Louis  to  the  outskirts  of  Edwards¬ 
ville,  Illinois,  and  there,  in  1890,  started  a  village, 
called  Leclaire  in  honour  of  the  pioneer  French  profit 
sharer.  He  pledged  his  employes  at  the  start  that, 
after  paying  them  the  current  wage,  giving  capital  a 
six  per  cent,  dividend,  and  taking  care  of  sinking  fund 
and  other  obligations,  he  would  divide  among  them 
the  profits  in  proportion  to  their  wages. 

In  the  twenty-five  years  since  the  plan  was  an¬ 
nounced  the  dividend  has  never  fallen  below  10  per 
cent,  and  has  risen  as  high  as  30  per  cent.  This  is 


232 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


not  paid  in  money,  but  in  stock.  To-day  the  em¬ 
ployes  of  the  Nelson  Manufacturing  Company  own 
over  one-fourth  of  the  concern.  In  1905  customers 
were  admitted  to  a  share  of  profits,  and  to-day  the 
two  interests  own  about  one-half  of  the  business. 
The  one  plant  has  become  three  —  one  in  Indiana, 
one  in  Alabama,  and  there,  also  profit  sharing  and 
other  features  of  Leclaire  are  followed. 

This  profit  sharing  plan,  or,  as  it  is  gradually  com¬ 
ing  to  be,  partnership  in  the  business,  with  other  co¬ 
operative  features  has  tied  the  force  at  Edwardsville 
together  in  a  most  unusual  way.  There  are  many 
men  still  active  on  the  force  (in  a  body  of  about  three 
hundred)  who  saw  the  building  of  the  attractive 
plant  and  of  the  first  house  in  Leclaire. 

In  1 9 1 1 ,  Mr.  Nelson  celebrated  the  coming  of 
age  of  the  town  (he  and  the  officers  live  there,  side 
by  side  with  the  men)  by  inviting  to  his  house  all  of 
the  employes,  with  their  families,  who  had  been  ten 
years  in  the  plant.  The  list  was  so  big  that  the  house 
wouldn't  hold  them,  and  he  wTas  obliged  to  raise  the 
age  limit!  In  a  talk  at  the  “  coming  of  age  ”  party, 
Mr.  Nelson  gave  the  real  secret  of  its  achievement: 

We  have  not  been  ambitious  to  become  great  or  rich ;  but 
we  have  sought  to  make  business  a  means  to  independence 
and  social  life. 

He  gave  in  a  few  words  the  reason  why,  in  his 
judgment,  so  many  of  the  scores  of  profit  sharing 
schemes  all  over  the  country  have  been  followed  by 
no  better  success : 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


233 


The  plans  are  usually  arbitrary  and  coupled  with  restric¬ 
tions.  Immediate  results  are  expected,  and  not  realised,  and 
the  motive  is  better  business ,  not  more  equal  division. 

The  success  at  Leclaire  is  a  success  of  justice,  not 
of  calculation. 

A  man  who  stays  with  the  Nelson  Manufacturing 
Company  to  the  end  of  his  working  life,  taking  full 
advantage  of  its  opportunities,  is  able  to  provide 
fairly  well  for  his  old  age.  Suppose  that  for  forty 
consecutive  years  he  earns  an  average  of  $600,  and 
that  the  average  dividend  on  wages  is  15  per  cent. 
Suppose  that  he  keeps  his  stock,  and  as  he  goes  along 
buys  from  his  wages  one  of  the  tidy  Leclaire  houses: 
many  men  have  done  this  already.  At  the  end  of  his 
forty  years  he  will  own  stock  worth  $3,600.  The 
interest  on  this  will  be  $216.  It  is  a  fair  provision 
for  a  man  of  sixty-five,  but  it  means,  of  course,  that 
he  will  be  obliged  to  cut  into  his  capital  if  he  lives 
until  he  is  eighty,  particularly  if  he  has  one  or  two 
persons  dependent  upon  him.  He  will  leave  little 
behind  him,  unless  he  is  able  to  piece  out  with  “  odd 
jobs,”  as  a  man  of  this  type  in  fair  health  undoubt¬ 
edly  would  do. 

At  all  events,  here  is  a  plan  which  gives  a  man  of 
energy  and  thrift  a  chance  of  becoming  and  remain¬ 
ing  measurably  independent  to  the  end  of  his  days. 

Few  of  our  recent  profit  sharing  experiments  work 
out  quite  so  generously.  Take  that  most  interesting 
venture  in  co-operation  by  the  Boston  Consolidated 
Gas  Company  —  a  species  of  partnership  between 


234 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


a  private  concern  under  State  regulation,  the  public, 
and  labour.  The  public  gets  its  dividends  by  reduc¬ 
tions  in  the  price  of  gas.  (The  company  claims  that 
this  is  a  larger  dividend  than  it  receives  itself.)  Em¬ 
ployes  get  theirs  from  a  premium  on  their  annual 
wage  or  salary,  paid  in  stock,  as  in  the  Nelson  con¬ 
cern. 

Not  everybody  is  admitted,  however.  In  the  ap¬ 
portionment  made  in  June,  1916,  698  out  of  1,039 
were  on  the  “  Honour  Roll  ”  as  the  list  of  profit 
sharers  is  called.  They  hold  3,910  shares  which 
have  a  value  at  this  writing  of  $342,530.  In  the  ten 
years  this  plan  has  been  in  operation,  a  man  in  the 
company,  receiving  the  average  annual  wage  of  about 
$963,  if  on  this  honour  roll,  would  have  accumulated 
about  $759  worth  of  stock.  If  he  works  for  the 
company  for  forty  years,  like  the  supposed  man  at 
Leclaire,  and  keeps  his  investment,  he  will  have  in 
1947,  at  this  rate,  something  over  $3,000  worth  of 
stock.  If  he  can  get  6  per  cent,  interest  on  this  he 
will  have  an  income  of  $180. 

It  will  depend  on  many  things  whether  at  sixty- 
five  he  can  live  comfortably  and  independently  on 
this  sum.  But  he  will  have  been  a  partner  in  a  great 
and  promising  experiment.  One  of  his  fellow  work¬ 
ingmen  will  have  represented  him  on  the  Board  of 
Directors,  and  the  chances  are  that  by  1947  any  fail¬ 
ure  of  the  present  plan  to  fulfil  the  just  demand,  that 
long  and  efficient  service  should  mean  a  decent  inde¬ 
pendent  support  for  a  man  by  the  time  he  is  sixty- 
five,  will  have  been  met. 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


235 

Since  1902  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
has  each  year,  1915  excepted,  offered  a  limited 
amount  of  stock  on  special  terms  to  officers  and  em¬ 
ployes.  The  amount  depended  on  the  wage  and 
salary.  Up  to  1915  if  he  earned  a  thousand  dollars 
it  was  two  shares  of  preferred  or  three  of  common. 
If  $10,000,  ten  of  the  one  or  eighteen  of  the  other. 
If  $20,000,  fifteen  of  the  one  and  eighteen  of  the 
other.  The  price  fixed  was  105  for  preferred,  57 
for  common.  On  account  of  the  disturbed  condition 
of  the  steel  industry  at  the  close  of  1914  the  privilege 
of  subscribing  for  stock  was  not  renewed  at  the  end 
of  the  year,  but  by  the  end  of  1915  things  had  so 
changed  that  it  was  possible  to  again  make  the  offer. 
There  was  some  slight  changes  in  the  plan.  No 
preferred  stock  was  offered.  The  price  of  common 
was  raised  from  57  to  85.  The  amount  offered  was 
limited  to  35,000  shares.  The  stock  is  paid  for  in 
monthly  installments  to  be  deducted  from  salary  or 
wages  of  the  subscriber;  the  minimum  instalment 
allowed  was  $2.50  for  preferred  and  $1.50  for  com¬ 
mon  under  the  former  terms  (it  is  now  $2.00  for 
common),  the  maximum  25  per  cent,  of  salary  or 
wages.  Three  years  are  allowed  in  which  to  pay 
for  stock. 

There  are  arrangements  for  cancellation  which 
are  entirely  fair,  if  intelligently  administered.  If 
the  stock  is  held  five  years  it  receives  an  annual 
bonus,  $5.00  on  preferred,  $3.50  on  common,  and 
there  is  an  extra  bonus  under  certain  conditions. 

-At  the  end  of  1913  there  were  over  35,000  em- 


236 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ployes  out  of  about  200,000  holding  stock  in  the  en¬ 
tire  Steel  Corporation.  The  value  of  these  holdings 
was  nearly  $15,000,000.  In  the  spring  of  1914 
something  over  half  of  the  6,000  workmen  in  the 
rolling  mill  at  Vandergrift,  Pennsylvania,  had  been 
subscribers  in  the  12  years  since  the  plan  was  started. 
At  that  time  I  talked  with  an  employe  who  had  been 
buying  all  the  stock  he  was  allowed  since  1903.  He 
gave  me  the  exact  results  in  his  case.  The  first  year 
he  took  four  shares  which  he  still  has.  In  1908 
these  four  shares  began  to  draw  the  bonuses  promised 
if  held  five  years.  In  all  they  have  amounted  ro 
$260.16.  In  the  years  between  1902  and  1909  he 
bought  in  all  twenty-five  shares.  All  of  this  stock 
had  earned  the  extra  rewards  for  holding.  What  it 
amounts  to  is  this:  The  twenty-five  shares  cost  him 
$2,106  which  was  paid  in  monthly  instalments 
taken  from  his  salary  and  from  interest  accrued. 
At  the  end  of  five  years  he  received  in  bonus  on  the 
stock  $1,315,  which  deducted  from  the  amount 
he  had  paid  made  the  stock  cost  just  $31.64  per 
share. 

That  this  plan  is  advantageous  for  people  earn¬ 
ing  $2,000  or  more  is  clear.  It  would  seem  to  mean 
little  to  the  man  on  less;  and  the  great  bulk  of  the 
Steel  Company  employes  receive  less.  Nevertheless 
in  January  of  1914,  15,295  men  earning  less  than 
$800  a  year  took  stock.  In  1916,  7,231  men  re¬ 
ceiving  less  than  $800,  16,152  receiving  from  $800 
to  $2,500,  and  1,556  of  those  receiving  over  $2,500 
a  year,  24,939  in  a^>  took  stock  to  the  amount  of 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


237 


49,741  shares.  The  present  annual  cost  to  the  cor¬ 
poration  of  the  plan  is  about  $1,135,000. 

There  is  something  more  than  the  amount  in  the 
ownership.  There  is  the  sense  of  having  a  share, 
however  small,  in  the  undertaking  with  which  you 
are  connected,  the  sense  of  dignity  that  comes  from 
the  consciousness  that  you  are  accumulating.  They 
see  too  that  bulked  this  stock  becomes  a  power.  A 
remarkable  incident  at  the  1914  stockholders’  meet¬ 
ing  of  the  Steel  Corporation  shows  this.  There  ap¬ 
peared  at  that  meeting  employes  of  several  of  the 
corporation’s  subsidiary  companies.  They  had  been 
elected  by  their  fellows,  and  their  expenses  paid  to 
go  to  this  meeting  and  to  vote  their  combined  stock. 
After  the  regular  proceedings  the  meeting  was  open 
for  discussion.  Judge  Gary  finally  called  upon  one 
after  another  of  these  workingmen  to  speak.  Their 
remarks  may  have  been  slightly  moderated  by  the 
unaccustomed  company  in  which  they  found  them¬ 
selves,  but  not  sufficiently  to  spoil  their  flavour  of 
sincerity  and  of  thoughtfulness.  They  talked  of 
many  things.  They  made  some  suggestions  which 
the  Corporation  ought  to  consider.  They  all  ap¬ 
proved  the  stock-holding  plan. 

“  Show  me,”  said  a  sheet  iron  heater,  who  now 
holds  33  shares,  “  where  I  could  have  been  helped 
to  an  investment  of  say  two  dollars  a  month,  where 
could  I  invest  that  for  twelve  per  cent.  The  Steel 
Corporation  did  not  have  to  give  that  to  me,  gen¬ 
tlemen;  they  did  not  have  to  provide  that  investment 
for  me.  And  I  contend  that  it  is  decidedly  unfair 


238 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


for  those  who  seem  to  criticise  or  want  to  criticise  to 
say  to  the  world  that  we  would  be  ungrateful  and 
that  we  did  not  appreciate  the  things  that  are  being 
done.” 

Another  of  the  representatives,  a  roller  from 
Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  said  in  reference  to  criti¬ 
cisms  of  the  scheme: 

“  I  am  not  compelled  to  buy  it:  we  take  it  as  we 
want  it.  I  am  still  buying  every  year,  and  I  have 
every  share  that  I  have  bought.  I  find  it  is  a  good 
investment;  in  fact,  you  cannot  get  an  investment 
anywhere  where  you  can  pay  two  or  three  dollars 
a  month  on  a  share  of  stock  and  have  the  interest 
coming  in  to  you  right  along  from  the  moment  you 
start.” 

No  successful  stock-ownership  plan  in  the  country 
is  based  on  a  longer  experience  or  a  firmer  deter¬ 
mination  to  find  something  practical  than  that  of 
Procter  &  Gamble  of  Cincinnati.  The  scheme  as 
first  worked  out  was  put  before  the  employes  of  the 
concern  —  then  between  450  and  500  persons,  early 
in  1887.  It  was  presented  frankly  as  a  business 
proposition.  The  firm  believed  it  possible  to  in¬ 
crease  profits  if  they  could  increase  the  “  diligence, 
carefulness  and  thoughtful  co-operation  ”  of  their 
employes.  They  hoped  to  do  this  by  sharing  profits. 
The  share  was  fixed  in  the  following  way.  The 
amount  of  money  divided  bore  the  same  relation  to 
the  total  profit  as  the  amount  of  wages  including 
the  partners’  salaries  bore  to  the  total  cost  of  doing 
business.  That  is  —  if  the  latter  was  $8,000  a  year 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


239 


and  the  total  wages  $1,000  —  then  one-eighth  of  the 
profit  was  considered  the  employes  share  or  divi¬ 
dend.  Not  everybody  was  to  be  included.  Boys 
and  girls  who  were  earning  the  beginner’s  wage  or 
any  one  who  had  been  less  than  three  months  with 
the  firm  did  not  participate.  This  rule  cut  the  num¬ 
ber  of  participants  down  to  193  of  the  450  employes. 

The  business  was  gaining  steadily  and  the  profits 
were  handsome.  They  were  distributed  semi-annu¬ 
ally  at  Dividend  Meetings  which  from  that  day  to 
this  have  been  regularly  observed  as  holidays  and  as 
celebrations.  Last  August,  1916,  the  58th  of  these 
Dividend  Meetings  was  celebrated. 

At  the  sixth  of  the  dividend  meetings  in  May  3, 
1890,  it  was  announced  that  in  the  three  years  the 
plan  had  been  in  operation  $60,000  had  been  dis¬ 
tributed.  On  this  occasion  it  amounted  to  nearly 
1 6  per  cent,  of  the  wages.  But  the  firm  was  not  sat¬ 
isfied.  Their  hope  of  arousing  all  the  participants 
to  “  diligence,  carefulness  and  thoughtful  co-opera¬ 
tion  ”  had  been  disappointed.  There  were  work¬ 
men  who  did  not  respond  —  though  they  took  the 
profits.  This  the  firm  held  was  unfair,  particularly 
to  those  who  were  trying  to  serve  the  business.  Ac¬ 
cordingly  a  new  method  of  distribution  was  an¬ 
nounced.  The  employes  were  divided  into  four 
classes  and  the  dividends  were  given  out  according 
to  merit. 

That  which  happened  in  those  years  in  many  con¬ 
cerns  where  this  form  of  profit-sharing  was  tried 
happened  in  Procter  &  Gamble’s.  The  dividend 


240 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


was  not  a  continuous  spur.  For  a  few  weeks  after 
it  was  paid  large  numbers  were  enthusiastic  and 
faithful,  then  cooled  off.  As  the  dividend  day  ap¬ 
proached  it  worked  like  an  approaching  Christmas 
festival  on  a  Sunday  school  class.  There  was  a  gen¬ 
eral  revival  of  effort.  But  it  could  not  hold  them. 
One  reason  for  this,  no  doubt,  was  that  so  large  a 
number  of  the  workers  were  boys  and  girls  with  the 
natural  irresponsibility  of  youth  towards  efforts 
which  are  to  be  rewarded  in  the  future. 

There  are  a  number  of  firms  in  the  country  who 
have  made  the  same  discovery  as  Procter  &  Gam¬ 
ble  did  at  the  end  of  six  years,  and  who  have 
shrugged  their  shoulders  and  said,  “  Never  mind  — 
go  on  —  it  isn’t  doing  much  good,  but  it  probably 
contributes  to  good  will  ” —  and  they  pay  the  divi¬ 
dends  much  as  they  give  turkeys,  because  it  is  the 
custom;  and  the  employes  accept  it  —  as  they  do  the 
turkeys  —  it  is  the  custom.  Procter  &  Gamble 
refused  to  go  on  with  a  plan  which  they  considered 
a  failure.  In  1893  they  cut  off  all  from  a  share  in 
the  profits  who  were  earning  more  than  $1,500  a 
year. 

But  they  did  not  drop  the  subject  as  scores  of  firms 
in  the  country  who  have  had  a  similar  experience 
have  done.  They  had  become  convinced  of  the  jus¬ 
tice  of  the  idea.  If  it  was  just,  it  was  good  business 
and  since  this  was  so  it  was  for  them  to  find  a  way 
that  would  work.  It  took  ten  years  to  do  this. 
They  were  ten  years  of  extraordinary  development 
in  the  business.  Procter  &  Gamble  had  started  as 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


241 


a  partnership  in  1837  with  a  capital  of  $9,000. 
They  made  candles  and  soap.  There  was  no  change 
in  the  business  organisation  until  1890,  when  the 
present  company  was  incorporated.  To  put  the 
capital  at  $6,500,000  was  considered  conservative 
and  was,  for  the  net  earnings  in  that  year  were  nearly 
$600,000  —  in  the  year  following  nearly  $900,000, 
and  in  1900  $1,000,000. 

This  expansion  had  come  legitimately  enough 
through  the  development  of  new  products  and  the  ap¬ 
plication  of  new  processes  and  inventions.  The 
prompt  sense  which  had  led  the  early  firm  to  see  that 
candles  were  to  fall  before  kerosene,  and  to  develop 
its  soap  market  had  never  been  dulled  in  the  busi¬ 
ness.  It  did  not  rest  itself  on  soap  alone.  It  had 
added  glycerine-making  when  the  process  for  ex¬ 
tracting  glycerine  from  what  had  been  a  waste  of  a 
soap  factory  was  discovered,  and  now  one  of  their 
leading  products  is  glycerine.  When  it  was  discov¬ 
ered  that  cotton  seed  oil  could  be  used  for  soap¬ 
making  instead  of  tallows  and  greases  they  began  to 
manufacture  the  oil  from  the  seed  itself.  They 
crush  4,000,000  pounds  a  day  now  in  the  season  and 
operate  cotton  seed  oil  mills  at  at  least  a  dozen  dif¬ 
ferent  points.  It  has  developed  an  enormous  busi¬ 
ness  in  different  lard  compounds  —  a  natural  out¬ 
growth  of  their  other  products. 

It  was  then  to  a  business  of  unusual  virility  and 
promise  that  the  new  profit  sharing  scheme  was  ap¬ 
plied  in  1903.  It  was  a  scheme  designed  for  people 
earning  under  $1,500  only,  and  it  was  arranged  to 


242 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


apply  to  any  one  and  every  one  in  the  force  irre¬ 
spective  of  wage  or  time  of  service.  That  is,  a  boy 
or  girl  on  six  dollars  a  week  could  become  a  profit 
sharer  as  soon  as  he  or  she  began  work  —  if  he  or 
she  accepted  the  terms.  The  little  booklet  of  some 
3,500  words  which  explains  the  new  plan  shows  the 
pains  that  had  been  taken  in  developing  it  to  what 
was  believed  to  be  a  workable  point.  The  title  of 
the  booklet  gives  a  clue  to  the  nature,  “  Revised 
Plan  for  Trust  Receipt  Dividends  for  Employes 
Through  Stock  Ownership.” 

The  point  for  us  here  is  how  does  it  operate? 
How  does  it  operate  in  the  case  of  an  employe  earn¬ 
ing  $600  a  year?  According  to  the  contract  the  firm 
offers  he  is  entitled  to  subscribe  at  once  for  common 
stock  in  the  business  to  the  full  amount  of  his  yearly 
wage  —  in  this  case  $600.  As  soon  as  the  trustees 
pass  on  his  application  he  will  be  asked  to  make  a 
payment  of  $15,  or  2p2  per  cent,  of  the  worth  of 
his  stock.  When  this  payment  is  made  there  is  is¬ 
sued  to  him  by  the  trustees  who  have  the  business  in 
charge  a  little  book  called  a  Trust  Receipt  Pass  Book 
which  is  his  contract  with  the  company  and  in  which 
all  transactions  over  the  stock  are  recorded. 

This  contract  binds  him  to  pay  each  year  not  less 
than  4  per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  the  stock  he  has 
taken,  that  is,  not  less  than  $24  until  it  is  all  paid  for. 
It  binds  Procter  &  Gamble  to  pay  him  annually  a 
dividend  on  his  wages  of  20  per  cent. —  in  this  case 
$120.  This  20  per  cent,  is  the  share  of  Procter  & 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


243 


Gamble’s  profits  which  belongs  to  each  employe  as 
soon  as  he  becomes  a  stockholder  in  the  concern. 
It  is  applied  to  the  price  of  his  stock,  instead  of  being 
paid  directly  in  money.  In  addition  to  what  he 
pays  from  his  wages  on  the  stock,  and  to  what  the 
firm  applies,  there  is  also  applied  the  regular  divi¬ 
dend  which  the  common  stock  draws. 

This  has  varied  in  different  years  since  the  inau¬ 
guration  of  the  plan  from  12  per  cent,  to  20  per 
cent.,  with  certain  extra  stock  dividends  coming  at 
various  times  in  addition  to  the  regular  dividends. 

The  present  rate  of  dividend  is  20  per  cent,  in 
cash,  payable  quarterly,  and  4  per  cent,  payable  an¬ 
nually  in  common  stock.  This  is  a  yearly  arrange¬ 
ment,  the  Company  in  1913  having  authorised  an  in¬ 
crease  in  the  common  capital  stock  from  $12,000,000 
to  $24,000,000,  to  be  issued  to  common  stockholders 
only,  in  the  shape  of  an  annual  4  per  cent,  stock  divi¬ 
dend,  until  the  entire  amount  is  issued  and  outstand¬ 
ing. 

The  employe  earning  $600  per  year,  subscribing 
to  stock  under  this  plan,  with  the  present  market 
value  of  say  $800  per  share,  would  have  an  interest 
in  .75  of  a  share  of  common  stock,  toward  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  which  would  be  applied  his  profit-sharing 
dividend  amounting  to  at  least  $120  per  year,  the 
cash  dividend  upon  his  stock,  which  would  amount 
to  $15  per  year,  in  addition  to  which  he  would  re¬ 
ceive  a  credit,  without  cost  to  him,  annually  of  the 
4  per  cent,  stock  dividend,  compounded  each  year; 


244 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


the  3  per  cent,  annual  interest  upon  the  amount  re¬ 
maining  unpaid  at  the  beginning  of  each  year  would 
be  charged  to  his  account. 

“  It’s  a  poor  fellow,”  one  of  the  workmen  re¬ 
marked  to  me,  “  that  can't  work  out  that  in  four 
years.  He  ain’t  worthy  of  the  chance.”  Suppose 
he  does  work  it  out  in  four  years.  When  the  pass¬ 
book  shows  it  is  paid  for,  a  paid-up  trust  receipt  is 
turned  over  to  the  employe.  The  stock  is  now  his 
and  he  will  receive  semi-annually  on  it  in  cash  both 
his  regular  stock  dividends  and  his  share  of  profits. 
That  is,  he  will  receive  at  least  $135  in  cash  on  an 
investment  which  in  four  years  has  taken  out  of  his 
regular  earnings  of  $600  a  year,  or  $2,400,  just 
$1 1 1.  The  interest  does  not  come  out  of  wages. 

If  he  has  succeeded  in  earning  such  an  investment 
in  four  or  five  years,  it  is  probable  he  will  be  keen  to 
increase  it.  He  will  be  permitted  to  do  so  at  the 
end  of  five  years,  but  only  by  an  amount  equal  to  25 
per  cent,  of  his  wages,  that  is,  in  his  case  only  $150 
worth  unless  indeed,  as  is  probable,  he  is  by  this  time 
earning  more  money;  but  now  instead  of  getting  a 
20  per  cent,  dividend  or  share  of  profits,  he  gets  one 
of  25  per  cent.  At  the  end  of  ten  years,  he  will  be 
allowed  to  subscribe  for  150  per  cent,  of  his  wages, 
and  his  profits  now  will  be  increased  to  30  per  cent, 
of  his  wages.  Suppose  that  in  this  ten  years  he  has 
doubled  his  wages,  that  is,  is  now  earning  $1,200. 
He  can  increase  his  subscription  to  $1,800  worth  of 
stock,  paying  down  2*^  per  cent,  of  the  increase;  and 
in  addition  4  per  cent,  each  year  until  he  has  paid  for 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


245 


it.  To  this  will  be  applied  annually  .as  his  share  of 
profits  30  per  cent,  of  his  wages,  $1,200,  or  $360  a 
year,  plus  the  20  per  cent,  dividend  on  his  stock 
which  will  amount  to  something  over  $50  a  year. 

This  is  the  gist  of  the  scheme  Procter  &  Gamble 
put  into  operation  twelve  years  ago.  How  has  it 
worked?  In  1915  I  was  permitted  to  go  over  the 
plant  at  Ivorydale  and  talk  to  many  men  and  women 
about  it.  At  that  time  735  out  of  1,200  employes  at 
Ivorydale  outside  of  the  officers  held  stock.  I  failed 
to  find  one  who  had  taken  advantage  of  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  who  was  not  impressed,  some  of  them  to  the 
point  of  enthusiasm,  others  to  one  of  bewilderment. 
I  remember  a  Russian  Jew  who  years  ago  was  em¬ 
ployed  as  a  day  labourer  and  is  now  earning  $100  a 
month  who  had  taken  all  the  stock  the  plan  allowed. 
He  had  bought  a  house  and  put  four  children 
through  the  public  schools.  “  It’s  the  greatest  thing 
I  ever  heard  of,”  he  told  me,  “  only  I  can’t  get 
enough.”  He  was  crying  for  ten  shares  more  and 
claimed  he  could  pay  for  them. 

I  was  introduced  to  a  machinist  who  had  been 
thirty  years  with  the  firm.  “  Yes,  mar’m,  a  great 
thing.  My  wife  will  never  have  to  take  in  washing. 
I’m  worth  $12,000,  because  of  that  scheme;  but  that 
isn’t  the  best  thing  here.  The  best  thing  is  they 
treat  you  white.  This  is  the  only  place  I  ever 
worked  where  they  do.  See  that  eye  —  gone? 
The  biggest  piece  of  steel  ever  taken  out  of  a  human 
eye  came  out  of  that.”  (This  with  great  pride.) 
“T  was  four  months  in  the  hospital  with  that  eye. 


246 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Never  cost  me  a  cent,  and  every  week  my  wife  re¬ 
ceived  my  pay  envelope.  This  profit-sharing  isn’t 
all  we  have  here.  We’ve  got  an  insurance  and  pen¬ 
sion  plan  that’s  the  greatest  thing  you  ever  heard  of. 
Just  let  me  tell  you  about  that.  ’  Fain’t  that  they 
favour  us  in  work.  We  work  here,  work  hard;  no 
mollycoddles  here,  but  we  get  treated  white. 
You’re  a  man  here.  Yes,  mar’m,  I  could  talk  all 
day  about  Procter  &  Gamble,  all  day.” 

One  of  the  reports  which  interested  me  most  was 
that  of  a  prominent  union  workman  to  whom  I  asked 
an  introduction,  because  of  his  sturdy  radicalism. 
“  What  do  you  think  of  it?  ”  I  asked.  “  Think  of 
it?  It’s  the  greatest  thing  ever;  you  can’t  believe 
it;  it’s  too  good  to  be  true.  Look  here,  let  me  show 
you  what  I’m  already  getting  every  year.”  It  was 
a  nice  little  sum,  $725  in  dividends  and  profits,  out¬ 
side  of  wages.  He  figured  it  out  in  my  note  book 
with  satisfaction.  It  was  evident  that  he  often  went 
over  the  figures  trying  to  convince  himself  of  their 
reality.  “  You  can’t  believe  it,”  he  said.  “  I  never 
heard  of  such  a  thing  before.” 

One  thing  that  worries  the  firm  is  that  the  girls 
do  not  take  to  the  profit  sharing  as  quickly  as  the 
men.  There  are  many  satisfactory  cases,  however. 
One  stenographer,  who  began  in  1897  on  $45  a 
month,  and  who  now  is  getting  $100  a  month,  has 
accumulated  $25,000. 

At  the  beginning  of  July,  1916,  there  were  about 
2,000  persons  in  the  various  plants  of  Procter  & 
Gamble,  holding  almost  3,700  shares  of  its  common 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


247 


stock  worth  at  the  present  market  something  over 
three  million  dollars. 

When  this  plan  has  been  in  operation  for  50 
years  the  “  wage  earner  ”  ought  to  have  a  respecta¬ 
ble  share  of  the  business.  At  every  semi-annual 
dividend  meeting  the  number  of  subscribers  in¬ 
creases.  The  personal  interest  and  attention  that 
the  heads  of  the  business  give  to  these  celebrations 
always  does  much  to  hold  and  make  subscribers. 
Mr.  Cooper  Procter,  the  general  manager,  Mr.  An¬ 
derson,  and  other  members  of  the  firm  come  to  Port 
Ivory,  the  Staten  Island  plant  of  Procter  &  Gam¬ 
ble,  to  help  in  the  festivities  of  these  occasions. 
They  go  to  Kansas  City  and  other  points.  At 
Ivorydale  everybody  from  top  to  bottom  and  all 
their  relations  are  present.  There  is  a  dinner,  an 
entertainment  and  a  dance  for  gaiety,  and  there  is 
the  report  on  the  scheme.  Without  the  personal 
attention  given  to  it  the  plan  would  probably  not 
succeed  as  it  does,  generous  as  it  is. 

It  is  helped  too  by  the  traditional  policy  of  the 
firm  to  help  those  who  show  themselves  willing  to 
help  themselves.  A  young  woman  in  the  main  of¬ 
fice  of  the  firm  holding  a  position  of  trust  and  im¬ 
portance  told  me  of  her  own  experience  as  an  illus¬ 
tration  of  why  in  her  judgment  so  many  “  got  on  ” 
in  Procter  &  Gamble’s.  “  They’re  so  proud  of 
you  if  you  are  ambitious,”  she  said,  “  and  they  give 
you  so  much  encouragement.”  At  seventeen  this 
girl  was  given  a  place  in  the  factory.  She  had  not 
only  herself  to  support,  but  others  to  help.  “  I 


248 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


didn’t  know  much,”  she  said,  “  but  I  went  to  night 
school,  and  they  were  proud  of  me  and  because  of 
that  they  did  everything  they  could  to  encourage  me. 
They  pushed  me  on  from  position  to  position,  until 
finally  here  I  am.  Everybody  is  proud  of  me  be¬ 
cause  they  say  I  did  it,  but,  of  course,  it  was  they 
who  did  it.” 

I  doubt  very  much  if  their  profit  sharing  could 
succeed  as  it  is  doing  if  employes  did  not  realise  not 
only  that  they  were  being  given  a  chance  to  acquire 
an  interest  in  the  business,  but  that  the  door  is  al¬ 
ways  open  to  higher  positions.  They  see  this  all 
around  them.  Everybody  has  come  up  from  the 
bottom;  even  the  Procters  and  Gambles  must  learn 
to  make  soap  if  they  are  to  stay  in  the  business. 
I'he  present  general  superintendent  of  the  manufac¬ 
turing  plants  began  as  an  office  boy.  The  vice-presi¬ 
dent  will  tell  you  that  he  once  handled  a  shovel. 
They  all  have  been  through  it.  They’ve  risen  as 
they  proved  themselves.  “  It  makes  you  feel  like  a 
man,”  a  superintendent  told  me.  All  of  the  men 
who  have  risen  and  all  who  are  acquiring  stock  are 
emphatic  in  their  conviction  that  the  policy  makes 
for  efficiency.  “  Do  you  suppose  Em  going  to  let  a 
new  man  come  in  and  loaf  on  his  job  or  that  I  don’t 
watch  the  leaks?  It’s  my  profits  that  I’m  looking 
out  for  now,”  a  man  told  me. 

I  would  not  give  the  impression  that  it  is  a  simple 
matter  to  acquire  stock  or  reach  the  top  in  this  busi¬ 
ness.  It  is  no  automatic  machine  by  which  men  and 
women  are  pushed  ahead  by  virtue  of  so  many  years 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


249 


of  service  regardless  of  quality  and  of  special  efforts. 
You  earn  all  you  get  at  Procter  &  Gamble’s.  You 
earn  it  by  energy,  and  ability,  and  in  no  other  way. 
The  aim  is  development  of  individuals,  not  the  cre¬ 
ating  of  an  industrial  bureaucracy.  What  you  get 
is  your  chance  and  a  persistent  urging  and  encour¬ 
agement  to  take  it,  with  advice  as  how  to  take  it.  It 
is  the  old  and  tried  American  scheme  for  making  a 
man  brought  up  to  date.  It  is  doubtful  if  on  the 
whole  the  world  has  yet  developed  anything  better. 
There  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  any  healthy  busi¬ 
ness  firm  with  sufficient  brains  and  understanding  of 
and  sympathy  for  men  and  women  should  not  do 
what  this  firm  does.  But  it  does  take  brains,  free¬ 
dom  from  isms,  humanity  and  a  large  firm  sense  of 
responsibility.  It  also  requires  that  a  firm  find 
more  satisfaction  in  seeing  a  large  number  of  wage- 
earners  laying  away  comfortable  little  fortunes  than 
a  few  stockholders,  themselves  included,  becoming 
millionaires. 

So  far  as  I  know,  there  is  no  attempt  to  meet  this 
obligation  of  a  business  through  stock  ownership, 
that  is,  partnerships,  which  is  quite  as  revolutionary 
—  and  adequate  —  as  that  which  has  been  in  prac¬ 
tice  for  fifteen  years  in  a  plant  of  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men  at  Evansville,  Wisconsin,  the  Baker 
Manufacturing  Company,  turning  out  windmills  and 
gasoline  engines. 

It  is  an  old  plant  as  things  go  in  Wisconsin, 
started  over  forty  years  ago  by  five  men,  each  of 
whom  put  in  $1,000.  The  ups  and  owns  of  it  can- 


250 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


not  be  followed  here.  They  were  considerable ;  but 
by  the  time  the  business  was  twenty-six  years  old 
(1899)  it  had  paid-up  capital  of  $100,000,  and  a 
surplus  of  over  $100,000,  and  that  year  paid  a  spe¬ 
cial  dividend  of  10  per  cent,  in  addition  to  a  6  per 
cent,  dividend  which  had  been  paid  regularly  for  six 
years. 

But  the  mind  and  the  conscience  of  the  company 
had  been  at  work  a  long  time  on  other  matters  than 
manufacturing.  What  about  the  men  who  made 
the  things  from  which  they  received  the  profits? 
Were  they  getting  the  square  deal? 

All  of  the  vague  questioning  and  the  half  think¬ 
ing  on  the  matter  by  the  builders  of  the  business  was 
stirred  and  focused  in  the  late  nineties  by  the  son  of 
one  of  the  founders.  This  young  man  was  J.  S. 
Baker.  He  had  had  two  experiences  to  make  him 
think:  one  was  a  period  at  the  University  of  Wis¬ 
consin,  then,  as  now,  fermenting  with  social  discus¬ 
sion;  another,  a  year  of  sitting  in  the  dark,  his  only 
hope  of  saving  his  eyes. 

“  A  man  thinks  when  he  faces  blindness,”  he  says 
quite  simply,  and  he  thought  of  the  whole  scheme  of 
things  as  wTe  have  them  in  industry  to-day  —  and  he 
did  not  like  it. 

When  his  eyes  permitted  him  to  return  to  the  busi¬ 
ness,  young  Mr.  Baker  had  some  ideas  on  co-opera¬ 
tion.  He  turned  them  over  to  the  firm,  as  he  turned 
in  the  patent  of  a  windmill,  and  possibly  received 
more  consideration  for  his  social  ideas  because  of 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


251 


the  success  of  his  mechanical  ones !  .The  result  was 
a  committee  for  a  serious  study  of  profit  sharing. 

The  plan,  finally  adopted  in  February,  1899,  was 
radically  different  from  any  other,  of  which  I  know 
in  this  country,  in  the  estimate  it  puts  on  the  value  of 
a  man’s  services.  In  the  Nelson  concern  the  profit 
comes  as  a  dividend  on  the  wages,  after  the  regular 
dividend  on  the  capital,  the  sinking  fund,  and  other 
obligations  have  been  paid. 

But  the  Baker  Company  laid  down  at  the  start 
that  profits  should  be  divided  between  labour  and 
capital  in  proportion  to  the  earnings  of  each.  If  a 
man  has  $10,000  in  preferred  stock  of  the  Baker 
Manufacturing  Company  its  regular  earnings  are 
$500  a  year  —  dividends  on  stock  are  limited  to  5 
per  cent.  It  is  that  $500,  not  the  $10,000,  which 
decides  his  proportion  of  the  profits !  I,  who  work 
at  the  bench  earning  on  an  average  $500  a  year,  am 
on  a  par  with  the  stockholder  when  it  comes  to  prof¬ 
its,  for  my  $500,  like  his,  is  simply  counted  as  in¬ 
terest  on  my  value.  It  shows  me  to  be  worth  $10,- 
000,  since  I  earn  the  same  amount  as  his  $10,000 ! 

I  would  not  be  considered  as  worth  this,  however, 
until  I  had  been  two  years  in  the  company;  then  I 
would  begin  to  draw  my  profit,  15  per  cent,  of  which 
would  be  paid  in  cash  and  85  per  cent,  in  common 
stock. 

Here  is  what  happened  in  January,  1900,  after 
the  plan  had  been  in  operation  one  year:  There 
was  paid  on  the  $200,000  preferred  capital  as  an 


252 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


extra  dividend  $904.75  in  cash  and  $5,126.94  in 
common  stock.  There  were  45  employes  qualified 
to  receive  the  extra  wage  that  year.  They  drew 
$2,129.66  in  cash  and  $12,068.12  in  stock,  or  about 
$47  apiece  in  money,  and  $268.18  in  a  5  per  cent 
stock.  Ten  years  later,  1910,  there  were  106  em¬ 
ployes  receiving  extra  wages.  They  amounted  to 
nearly  $9,150  in  cash,  and  about  $51,840  in  stock. 
By  this  time,  1910,  3,579  shares  of  the  common 
stock  had  been  issued,  which  drew  a  5  per  cent,  cash 
dividend  and  did  not  participate  further  in  the  bene¬ 
fits. 

From  the  start  it  had  been  realised  that  if  the 
scheme  was  to  be  permanent  there  must  be  some 
means  of  preventing  the  stock  scattering,  some  way 
of  drawing  back  into  the  treasury  what  was  sold. 
In  19  10  an  amendment  looking  to  this  was  an¬ 
nounced.  It  is  as  ingenious  as  the  original  plan. 

Suppose  that  you  had  worked  with  the  Baker 
Manufacturing  Company  for  five  years,  from  1905 
to  1909,  and  you  had  averaged  $500  a  year.  In 
1907  you  would  have  begun  to  share  extra  wages. 
These  would  have  amounted  to  100  per  cent,  of  your 
wages  in  1907,  to  78  per  cent,  in  1908,  to  100  per 
cent,  in  1909.  In  money  you  would  have  been  paid 
in  these  three  years  $208.50  and  in  stock  $1,181.50. 

The  company  now  comes  to  you  with  a  “  purchase 
contract.”  Under  this  you  deposit  your  stock  with 
it,  agreeing  that  if  you  sell,  you  sell  to  the  company 
at  the  market  price.  If  you  leave  and  go  to  a  com¬ 
petitor,  or  work  independently,  you  must  sell  your 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


253 


stock  to  the  company  if  it  wishes  to  purchase  it. 
But  the  company  has  no  power  to  force  you  to  sell 
if  you  are  put  on  their  retired  list.  What  it  does 
if  you  retire  and  wish  to  sell  is  gradually  to  buy  back 
your  stock,  paying  you  $5  on  each  share  for  15  years, 
when  it  becomes  theirs.  The  aim  of  this  arrange¬ 
ment  is  clear.  The  stock  is  meant. for  those  who 
are  active  in  the  company,  and  for  them  alone. 

When  the  purchase  contract  was  announced  an  ex¬ 
planation  went  with  it: 

Suppose  a  man  begins  to  work  when  he  is  twenty-eight 
and  gets  his  first  stock  when  he  is  thirty  years  old;  if  for 
twenty-five  years  he  receives  an  average  of  three  shares  of 
stock  a  year  he  will  when  he  is  fifty-five  have  $7,500  of  stock. 
If  he  then  retires,  his  income  from  the  dividends  on  the 
stock  will  be  $375  a  year,  and  from  the  $5  a  share  endorse¬ 
ments  it  will  also  be  $375,  or  a  total  of  $750  a  year.  This 
will  continue  for  fifteen  years,  or  until  he  is  seventy  years 
old,  when  the  endorsements  will  cease,  but  the  $375  divi¬ 
dends  will  continue  as  long  as  he  lives. 

So  far  the  purchase  contract  has  served  to  meet 
the  end  for  Which  it  was  devised:  to  keep  the  stock 
from  scattering;  to  make  the  business  the  property 
of  those  who  are  responsible  for  its  product.  The 
Baker  Manufacturing  Company  is  not  for  the  idle, 
not  for  the  dead,  not  for  the  rich.  It  is  for  the 
workers  who  manage  and  who  man  it. 

Everybody  concerned  has  not  been  satisfied  with 
this  undertaking.  A  few  years  ago  an  attempt  to 
upset  it  was  made  and,  as  was  to  be  expected,  it 
started  from  the  outside  capital.  “  Certain  stock- 


254 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


holders  ” —  so  runs  the  spirited  “  official  ”  account 
of  the  affair  which  was  printed  in  one  of  the  local 
newspapers, — “  Certain  stockholders  in  our  city 
went  to  our  men  asking  their  proxies,  promising  them 
a  20  per  cent,  increase  in  wages  and  salaries  and  a 
sufficient  increase  in  common  stock  dividend  to  bring 
common  stock  to  par,  their  intention  being  to  knock 
out  profit  sharing  and  the  present  management.” 

The  charges  wThich  the  outside  capital  brought 
against  the  Baker  plan  were  serious.  The  company, 
they  claimed,  paid  less  wages  and  earned  less  on  pre¬ 
ferred  stock  than  other  companies  in  similar  busi¬ 
ness. 

Mr.  Baker’s  analysis  of  the  charge  was  thorough 
and  convincing.  Taking  the  latest  official  figures  on 
the  windmill  and  agricultural  implement  business, 
those  for  1905,  he  showed  that  the  average  wage  in 
the  windmill  factories  was  $503.81.  The  Baker 
wage,  without  profits,  was  $561.68.  The  average 
salaries  in  other  concerns  was  $1,013.53,  in  theirs, 
$970.18.  The  average  product  per  man  in  the  com¬ 
pany  was  $2,485.77;  in  the  Baker  Company  nearly 
one  thousand  more ,  or  $3,400. 

In  1905  the  agricultural  implement  manufacturers 
of  the  company  earned  about  8  per  cent.  The 
Baker  Company  paid  preferred  stock  (extra  divi¬ 
dends  included)  9  per  cent.,  and  it  paid  labor  81 
per  cent.  “Why  is  this?  ”  he  asked.  “  Is  it  be¬ 
cause  we  are  better  located?  We  are  not  so  well 
located  for  some  trade;  we  have  to  pay  incoming 
freight  to  such  an  extent  that  we  cannot  sell  East, 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


255 


and  are  handicapped  in  shipping  out  by  having  only 
one  line  of  railroad. 

“  Was  it  because  of  low  taxes?  We  are  assessed 
in  round  numbers  70  per  cent,  of  our  assessable  prop¬ 
erty;  competing  manufacturers  in  this  same  country 
are  assessed  as  low  as  25  per  cent,  of  their  assessable 
property,  and  25  per  cent,  is  more  nearly  the  rule 
for  assessing  manufacturers  everywhere.  The  large 
dividend  was  possible  principally  because  our  output 
per  man  was  in  the  neighbourhood  of  $5, goo,  instead 
of  $2,500. 

“  Many  will  say  they  would  not  suppose  there 
would  be  such  a  difference  in  the  output  per  man  in 
different  factories.  It  is  a  fact  that  running  most 
any  of  our  machines  one  speed  and  one  feed  slower 
than  they  should  be  run  will  nearly  cut  their  output 
in  two,  and  there  are  great  opportunities  for  our  men 
to  invent  ways  to  save  time.  They  run  from  one  to 
six  machines  each,  while  union  men  refuse  to  run 
more  than  one. 

“  The  amounts  given  through  profit  sharing  are, 
therefore,  not  due  to  lower  wages  or  to  small  earn¬ 
ings  for  the  preferred  stock,  but  to  the  increased 
earnings  of  the  men,  due  to  the  incentive  of  profit 
sharing.  Destroy  profit  sharing  and  you  destroy 
what  is  given  in  profit  sharing. 

“  It  is  my  opinion  that  factories  are  like  stores  and 
farms:  if  you  want  profits  you  must  run  them  your¬ 
selves,  and  know  how  to  run  them.  If  you  lean  al¬ 
together  on  hired  help  you  will  in  most  cases  lose 
money.” 


256 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


The  opposition  seems  to  have  had  no  adequate 
reply  to  the  showing  Mr.  Baker  made,  for  things 
still  go  on  as  they  were.  Apparently  the  factory 
force  believe  in  the  undertaking.  In  1 9°°,  45 
shared  in  the  profits,  20  of  whom  are  still  with  the 
concern.  In  1905,  63  shared;  32  are  still  there. 
In  1910,  106  shared,  and  72  are  there. 

What  the  Baker  plan  does  is  to  make  partners 
of  all  those  active  in  the  business.  It  keeps  a  busi¬ 
ness  permanently  in  the  hands  of  those  who  are 
actively  interested  in  its  stability  and  its  develop¬ 
ment.  It  prevents  its  falling  into  the  hands  of  dead 
men  or  of  capitalists.  It  more  nearly  approaches 
the  dreams  of  the  syndicalists  than  any  other  enter¬ 
prise  of  which  I  know. 

There  are  few  businesses  which  are  as  yet  willing 
to  consider  even  partial  ownership  or  partnership 
as  a  solution  of  the  problem  of  long  service.  Those 
who  admit  there  is  a  right  involved,  as  a  rule  fall 
back  upon  the  easier  solution  of  the  pension.  Our 
great  corporations  are  rapidly  providing  funds  for 
the  purpose.  The  Harvester  Company  is  building 
up  its  pension  fund  by  appropriating  annually  some¬ 
thing  from  its  earnings.  The  Bell  Telephone  Com¬ 
pany  in  1913  set  aside  about  $9,000,000  for  pensions 
and  what  it  calls  “  disability  and  death  funds.”  Since 
1910  the  U.  S.  Steel  Corporation  has  administered  a 
fun  of  $  1 2,000,000,  of  which  Mr.  Carnegie  gave  $4,- 
000,000.  At  the  end  of  1915  it  had  over  three  thou¬ 
sand  names  on  the  roll.  The  average  amount  each 
received  was  a  little  over  $219  a  year.  Scores  of 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  JUSTICE 


257 


smaller  concerns  have  provided  some  form  of  pension. 

But  there  is  an  objection  to  the  word.  To  many 
minds  it  conveys  the  idea  of  something  given,  not 
earned.  No  permanent  good  can  come  in  industry 
from  anything  which  is  actuated  by  charity  or  pat¬ 
ronage.  The  pension  is  not  a  gratuity;  it  is  an  obli¬ 
gation.  The  public  policy  committee  of  the  Na¬ 
tional  Electric  Light  Association  in  a  remarkable  re¬ 
port  made  in  19 1 1  has  a  wise  and  significant  word  to 
say  on  the  subject. 

By  unanimous  vote,  the  term  Pension ,  as  being  inade¬ 
quate  or  subject  to  wrong  interpretation,  has  been  elim¬ 
inated.  We  recommend  as  a  substitute  Service  Annuity. 
Our  opinion  is  that  the  latter  is  to  be  paid  as  a  form  of 
compensation  for  a  definite  service  that  cannot  be  rightly  in¬ 
cluded  within  ordinary  wages.  It  is  compensation  for  con¬ 
tinuous  service  over  a  period  of  several  years,  and  is  to  be 
paid  on  carefully  prearranged  and  understood  conditions. 

This  is  a  great  admission.  At  present  the  impor¬ 
tant  matter  is  not  the  machinery,  it  is  not  the  amount 
received,  it  is  the  recognition  of  the  justice  of  the 
principle  of  giving  all  who  are  necessary  to  an  enter¬ 
prise  a  share  of  the  returns  of  that  enterprise,  in 
proportion  not  only  to  daily  but  to  continued  service. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  the  most  important  thing  about 
these  various  undertakings  is  the  proof  they  give  to 
a  cynical  world  that  business  is  willing  to  experiment 
in  justice f  that  it  is  not  all  “  stand  pat  ”  in  theory 
and  practice;  that  daily  more  and  more  men  are  say¬ 
ing:  Let  us  bring  in  everybody.  That  way  lie  hap¬ 
piness,  stability,  and  fair  play. 


CHAPTER  X 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 

It  is  stimulating  and  heartening  to  watch  the  effect 
these  efforts  I  have  been  describing  have  on  various 
labour  problems.  They  simplify  the  stiffest  of  them. 
They  have  already  brought  out  at  least  two  causes 
of  unemployment  and  shown  how  they  may  be  weak¬ 
ened  if  not  removed. 

The  coming  of  the  Great  War  in  1914  demon¬ 
strated  tragically  how  illy  we  are  prepared  to  cope 
with  disturbances  of  the  labour  market.  War 
thrusts  a  sure  lance  into  a  nation’s  weak  spots,  be 
that  nation  neutral  or  combatant.  Almost  as  soon 
as  the  present  war  was  declared  we  were  face  to  face 
with  a  vast  out-of-work  throng  —  true  it  might  be 
short-lived,  but  again  it  might  not.  The  worst  of 
it  was  we  had  no  plan  for  handling  the  situation. 
If  it  had  been  necessary  we  could  have  promptly 
raised  an  army  of  a  sort  in  an  orderly,  well-thought- 
out  fashion.  Individuals,  States,  the  Federal  Gov¬ 
ernment  would  have  known  the  immediate  and  log¬ 
ical  steps  to  take.  But  when  it  came  to  the  greatest 
business  of  Peace  in  the  time  of  calamity  —  keeping 
men  and  women  at  work  —  nobody  knew  what  to 
do,  unless  to  contribute  to  a  soup  kitchen. 

There  were  employers  without  a  sense  that  patri- 

258 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


259 

otism  as  well  as  policy  demanded  that  their  wheels 
should  run;  there  were  communities  that  looked  apa¬ 
thetically  on  the  closing  of  factories,  as  if  they  had 
no  urgent  duty  in  the  matter.  States,  for  the  most 
part,  were  helpless;  so  was  the  Federal  Government. 
It  was  revealed  on  the  instant  that  there  was  in  this 
country  no  organisation  for  handling  labour.  It 
takes  care  of  itself,  groping  hither  and  thither  as  in¬ 
stinct,  rumour,  hope,  greed  may  call. 

Many  men  ridicule  the  idea  that  it  can  be  scien¬ 
tifically  handled.  They  tell  us  the  unemployed  have 
always  been  with  us,  and  always  must  be.  It  is  the 
oldest  reason  in  the  world  for  tolerating  injustice  and 
misery.  Unemployment  is  no  more  necessary  than 
war.  It  may  be  as  difficult  to  overcome,  but  that  is 
another  question.  It  is  no  more  an  untouched  prob¬ 
lem  than  is  putting  an  end  to  war.  Nor  is  it  a  prob¬ 
lem  which  it  takes  a  war  to  thrust  in  our  faces.  We 
have  it  with  us  more  or  less  all  the  time,  though  its 
exact  extent  no  man  can  tell.  Like  many  things 
which  the  world  has  agreed  must  always  be  with  us, 
it  has  been  thought  best  to  know  as  little  as  possible 
of  the  unpleasant  truths  of  the  unemployed.  Fig¬ 
ures  are  loose  and  disputed.  During  the  painful 
agitation  in  New  York  City  in  the  winter  19 14-15 
it  was  claimed  that  there  were  300,000  men  and 
women  walking  the  streets  vainly  seeking  work  — 
but  the  New  York  commissioner  of  labour  declared 
he  did  not  believe  there  were  that  many  unemployed 
in  the  State.  In  Massachusetts  the  labour  organisa¬ 
tions  keep  the  state  labour  bureau  informed  of  the 


26o 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


percentage  of  unemployment  among  their  members. 
At  the  end  of  March,  1915,  twelve  per  cent,  of  the 
173,000  members  reporting  were  idle.  William 
Leiserson,  the  secretary  of  the  Wisconsin  free  em¬ 
ployment  offices,  said  that  in  the  fall  of  1914  in  that 
State  there  were  250  applicants  or  every  100  jobs. 
The  Charity  Organisation  Society  of  Buffalo,  New 
York,  declared  that  there  were  10,000  men  idle  in 
that  town  in  the  spring  of  1915;  another  agency  in 
touch  with  the  situation  doubled  the  number.  In 
Kansas  City  at  the  same  time  twenty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  union  men  were  reported  idle. 

One  of  the  most  careful  investigations  of  the  num¬ 
bers  out  of  work  was  made  in  Philadelphia  by  the 
Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company.  The  con¬ 
clusion  from  their  findings  was  that  something  over 
10  per  cent,  of  labour  was  idle  and  about  20  per 
cent,  on  part  time.  This  meant  about  79,000  in  the 
first  class  and  about  150,000  in  the  second.  These 
percentages  probably  held  good  in  all  our  large 
cities. 

But  if  we  use  these  figures  let  it  be  with  discrimina¬ 
tion.  If  there  really  were  300,000  idle  in  New 
York  City  in  that  disastrous  winter  it  does  not  follow 
that  there  were  300,000  fit  and  willing  to  work  who 
could  not  find  work.  A  large  percentage  always  of 
those  who  are  numbered  with  the  unemployed  do  not 
belong,  strictly  speaking,  in  the  problem.  There 
are  always  a  considerable  number  who  detest  work 
and  who  will  not  stick  to  it  for  longer  than  a  few 
days  at  a  time.  There  are  the  old,  the  unfit,  the  un- 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


261 


trained.  These  are  serious  special. problems  not  to 
be  considered  here.  In  New  York  in  the  winter  of 
1914— 1 5  there  was  a  conspicuous  group  known  popu¬ 
larly  as  the  “  I  Won’t  Works.”  They  were  there 
to  advertise,  at  the  top  of  their  lungs  and  by  all  the 
ingenious  tricks  they  could  devise,  what  a  poor  stick 
industry  as  we  know  it  now  is,  and  to  offer  a  substi¬ 
tute.  It  was  propaganda,  and  very  effective  propa¬ 
ganda,  the  I.  W.  W.  did  for  their  particular  pana¬ 
cea  ;  but  they  could  hardly  be  numbered  among  the 
legitimate  unemployed. 

Another  class  of  unemployed  which  should  be 
dropped  out  of  the  problem  —  at  least  as  we  are 
considering  it  here  —  are  those  who  have  pulled  up 
stakes  and  are  seeking  to  better  themselves.  New 
York  always  has  a  large  contingent  of  this  kind;  the 
new-come  immigrant  swells  it  sometimes  to  huge 
proportions.  In  the  year  ending  June,  1914,  over 
1,218,000  men,  women  and  children  migrated  to 
this  country.  That  immigrants  to  the  United  States 
have  almost  sure  chances,  history  has  shown.  Our 
absorption  of  them  is  the  most  amazing  phenomenon 
in  the  transmigration  of  peoples.  Nevertheless,  it 
invariably  requires  months,  if  not  years,  for  each 
one  of  these  newcomers  to  find  the  thing  that  he  best 
can  do.  The  undigested  mass  —  those  who  have 
made  their  plunge  and  are  still  struggling  and  splut¬ 
tering  on  the  surface  without  any  idea  which  way  to 
swim  —  are  not  included  here  in  the  problem. 

Those  who  really  do  come  under  the  head  are 
those  who  having  once  had  a  foothold  on  the  labour 


262 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ladder,  find  themselves  pushed  or  forced  to  jump 
off.  When  men  and  women  have  once  been  ac¬ 
cepted  as  useful  in  the  labour  market,  why  are  they 
not  kept  busy?  This  is  a  question  that  scores  of 
employers  as  well  as  public  men  and  students  of  so¬ 
cial  conditions  have  been  asking  themselves  for  a 
long  time.  Their  attempts  to  answer  the  question 
have  come  to  a  point  where  if  they  do  not  form  a 
programme  at  least  they  form  the  planks  of  one. 
It  is  the  employer  who  has  touched  the  bottom  of 
this  problem.  He  has  discovered  two  prime  causes 
of  unemployment,  both  of  which  lie  reasonably 
within  his  control.  The  first  of  these  is  the  floater. 
It  has  only  been  in  recent  years  with  the  awakening 
that  has  come  to  industrial  management  that  the  ex¬ 
tent  of  the  floater  in  industry  has  been  realised. 
Ten  years  ago  even  if  you  asked  the  average  intelli¬ 
gent  employer  if  he  was  able  to  “  hold  labour,”  he 
would  tell  you,  “  Why,  certainly  we  hold  our  people. 
There’s  Billy  Jones;  he  was  an  errand  boy  for  my 
father  fifty  years  ago,  and  he’s  never  worked  any¬ 
where  else.  There’s  Mary  —  she  came  in  here 
thirty  years  ago  when  she  was  ten,  and  she’s  worked 
every  year  since.  We  wouldn’t  feel  the  factory  was 
going  if  Mary  wasn’t  here.” 

Tell  him  you  are  willing  to  wager  from  what  you 
have  observed  that  he  hires  at  least  eight  hundred  a 
year  to  keep  up  his  force  of  one  thousand  people, 
and  he  will  call  you  an  uninformed  mischief-maker. 
Challenge  him  to  examine  his  own  employment  rec¬ 
ords,  and  he  will  come  back  crest-fallen  and  tell  you 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


263 


he  wouldn’t  have  believed  it.  Persuade  him  to  put 
an  expert  investigator  on  his  own  problem  he  will  be 
confronted  with  a  state  of  affairs  which  will  make 
him,  if  he  is  really  intelligent,  see  ruin  and  disaster 
dancing  like  stars  before  his  eyes. 

A  few  years  ago  the  Jeffrey  Manufacturing  Com¬ 
pany  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  discovering  that  it  was  an¬ 
nually  hiring  more  men  than  its  average  force  num¬ 
bered,  set  out  to  find  if  there  were  others  in  similar 
businesses  having  their  experience.  Forty  letters 
were  sent  out.  Twenty  received  answers;  and  these 
answers  showed  that  these  twenty  firms  to  keep  up  a 
force  of  44,000  men  were  actually  hiring  69,000  a 
year. 

Four  years  ago  Henry  Ford,  then  employing  some 
12,000  men,  was  told  by  an  investigator  that  he  had 
set  loose  in  his  plant  to  find  out  what,  if  anything,  was 
wrong,  that  he  was  hiring  60,000  a  year.  He  did 
not  believe  it.  His  partners  did  not  believe  it.  The 
general  superintendent  hotly  denied  it;  but  their  own 
figures  proved  it  beyond  dispute. 

Only  a  few  months  ago  that  conservative  body, 
the  National  Association  of  Manufacturers,  listened 
to  a  paper  on  floating  labour,  the  result  of  unusually 
careful  investigation.  It  showed  that  in  a  group  of 
twelve  factories  perhaps  slightly  above  the  average 
in  conditions,  it  had  been  necessary  to  hire  42,571 
men  to  keep  up  a  force  which  at  the  beginning  of  the 
period  considered  was  37,274  and  which  had  in¬ 
creased  by  but  6,697.  That  is  6j4  times  as  many 
men  were  hired  as  the  increase  demanded. 


264 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


Of  course  a  need  of  more  men  is  not  the  only  le¬ 
gitimate  reason  for  hiring.  Groups  of  human  be¬ 
ings  are  steadily  worn  down  by  natural  causes  as 
rocks  are  worn  away  by  wind  and  weather.  Death, 
long  continued  illness,  temperament,  the  ups  and 
downs  of  business  cut  into  them.  A  constant  repair¬ 
ing  must  go  on.  Twenty  per  cent,  is  the  degree  of 
disintegration  which  experts  estimate  to  be  unavoid¬ 
able  under  the  best  possible  labour  conditions.  Yet 
in  the  cases  above  the  losses  were  nearer  80  per  cent. 

It  has  not  needed  argument  to  convince  intelli¬ 
gent  employers  of  the  waste  in  such  labour  turn¬ 
overs  as  these.  The  money  loss  that  is  easily  cal¬ 
culable  is  itself  serious.  Hiring  a  man  and  fitting 
him  into  a  labour  force  is  an  expensive  operation. 
It  is  not  merely  the  money  that  the  operation  of  hir¬ 
ing  and  instructing  costs.  There  is  an  increased 
wear  and  tear  of  tools  and  machines.  There  is  a 
reduced  output  and  there  is  spoiled  work  and  materi¬ 
als.  Those  things  vary,  no  doubt,  in  every  trade 
and  every  factory.  From  thirty  dollars  to  two  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  is  given  by  those  wTho  have  tried  to  esti¬ 
mate  the  cost  in  their  particular  businesses. 

But  who  shall  say  what  the  employer  of  shifting 
labour  loses  through  lack  of  co-operation  and  that 
spirit  which  makes  a  factory  a  joy  and  a  pride? 

The  employer  loses,  but  the  man  loses  more. 
Constant  change  makes  “  getting  ahead  ”  impossi¬ 
ble.  It  cuts  his  yearly  earnings  so  that  he  cannot 
keep  his  family.  More  families  are  broken  up  in 
our  industrial  centres  through  irregular  work  than 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


265 


from  any  other  cause.  Under  the  continual  influ¬ 
ence  of  change  he  loses  his  desire  for  a  settled  place, 
and  he  has  less  and  less  chance  of  keeping  one  be¬ 
cause  whatever  skill  he  possesses  at  the  start  rapidly 
deteriorates.  He  loses  and  his  trade  loses.  More¬ 
over  the  industrial  world  as  a  whole  suffers,  for  this 
shifting  of  labour  is  a  serious  contributing  cause  to 
our  chronic  unemployed  problem. 

What  is  behind  these  shifting  wandering  labour 
forces?  Can  they  be  stabilised? 

In  the  admirable  bulletin  on  unemployment  re¬ 
cently  put  out  by  the  city  of  Philadelphia  there  is  a 
letter  published  from  a  textile  worker  who  says  that 
in  his  time  (about  twenty-five  years,  I  judge)  he  has 
worked  in  forty  different  places.  “  I  have  never 
been  discharged,  always  changing  with  a  view  to  bet¬ 
ter  conditions  or  because  of  slack  business.” 

Here  you  have  the  essence  of  the  problem  ex¬ 
tracted  from  the  experience  of  a  man  who  knew  his 
trade  and  wanted  work,  but  who  had  floating  labour 
practically  forced  upon  him.  It  is  “  conditions  ”  and 
slack  time  which  breed  floaters.  Open-minded  for¬ 
ward-looking  employers  who  have  tried  seriously  to 
build  up  stable  labour  have  had  amazing  results  by 
reforming  their  methods  of  hiring  and  handling  men. 
For  instance,  W.  A.  Grieves  of  the  Jeffrey  Manu¬ 
facturing  Company,  who  conducted  the  investigation 
of  floaters  referred  to  above,  has  with  his  colleagues 
worked  out  a  system  of  handling  men  which  has  re¬ 
duced  their  labour  turn-over  by  about  60  per  cent., 
'an  annual  saving  in  the  case  of  this  particular  shop 


266 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


of  probably  $50,000.  If  the  twenty  firms  which 
Mr.  Grieves  found  hiring  69,000  men  to  keep  an 
average  of  44,000  had  applied  his  methods  they 
would  have  hired  only  27,600  and  would  have 
saved  $1,760,000.  What  the  41,400  hired  and 
fired  would  have  been  saved  no  man  can  compute. 

The  German-American  Button  Company  of  Roch¬ 
ester,  New  York,  claims  that  in  the  last  few  years 
new  methods  of  handling  their  force,  methods  care¬ 
fully  planned  and  thoroughly  and  cautiously  applied, 
have  reduced  what  they  call  the  “  exchange  of  em¬ 
ployes  ”  40  per  cent,  and  they  expect  to  reduce  it 
still  further.  In  four  years  the  Joseph  Feiss  Com¬ 
pany  of  Cleveland  reduced  its  labour  turn-over  by 
80  per  cent.  These  examples  might  be  multiplied 
many  times.  Make  your  conditions  right,  establish 
natural  human  relations,  seek  for  a  fair  day  and  a 
just  wage,  cultivate  co-operation  in  profits  and  in 
management,  and  your  floater  settles  down.  He  is 
getting  his  chance. 

The  Philadelphia  worker  quoted  above  changed 
to  improve  his  condition,  but  he  changed  probably 
quite  as  often  because  the  factory  closed  down. 

There  is  a  general  ignorance  of  the  amount  of  un¬ 
employment  in  the  country  resulting  from  short  time 
in  mills  and  factories.  In  investigating  its  unem¬ 
ployed  in  1915  the  city  of  Philadelphia  found  that, 
particularly  in  the  textile  and  clothing  industries  of 
the  city,  there  was  an  appalling  irregularity  of  work. 
For  instance,  the  lace  weavers  have  not  averaged 
more  than  60  per  cent,  of  time  in  the  last  five  years. 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


267 


The  carpet  mills  have  lost  annually  in  the  last  four 
years  something  like  20  per  cent,  of  time.  The 
dress  goods  manufacturers  consider  75  per  cent,  of 
the  year  normal.  When  it  came  to  other  industries, 
the  report  mentions  a  large  railroad  equipment  plant 
that  has  not  averaged  more  than  50  per  cent,  of  its 
capacity  in  the  last  five  years;  the  dock  hands  of  the 
city  work  only  about  two  days  a  week;  and  every 
winter  thousands  of  Italians  come  back  to  town  from 
the  truck  farms  in  South  Jersey.  What  is  true  of 
Philadelphia  is  true  of  the  country.  American  tex¬ 
tile  mills  are  closed  on  an  average  25  per  cent,  of  the 
year,  book,  printing  and  binding  plants  20  to  30  per 
cent.,  boot  and  shoe  factories  from  six  to  twelve 
weeks. 

The  first  operation  of  the  old-fashioned  employer, 
face  to  face  with  business  disturbances  and  disaster, 
is  to  take  to  cover  by  shutting  down.  Just  as  low 
wages  and  long  hours  have  been  accepted  as  the 
surest  way  of  producing  at  a  low  cost,  so  stopping 
business  entirely  in  dull  or  disastrous  times  has  been 
considered  the  best  economy.  The  old-fashioned  em¬ 
ployer  not  only  stopped,  but  he  stopped  practically 
without  a  warning.  All  over  this  country  in  the  fall 
of  1914  thousands  of  men  and  women,  living  on  a 
moderate  weekly  wage,  learned  on  Saturday  night 
that  they  would  not  be  needed  for  work  on  Monday 
morning. 

To  a  modern  scientific  manager  this  closing  down 
of  a  plant  is  not  only  brutal  from  a  human  stand¬ 
point:  it  is  wasteful  and  disorganising  from  the  eco- 


268 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


nomic  standpoint  —  the  poorest  sort  of  business. 
A  stirring  and  just  arraignment  of  the  policy  ad¬ 
dressed  in  1915  to  the  receiver  of  the  Wheeling  and 
Lake  Erie  Railroad  Company  by  Judge  John  H. 
Clarke,  now  of  the  Supreme  Bench,  deserves  the 
attention  of  all  employers  who  think  that  they  can 
gain  by  stopping  work.  This  receiver,  following 
the  customary  policy,  had  practically  closed  down 
nearly  all  the  repair  and  equipment  shops  of  the 
company,  throwing  hundreds  of  men  out  of  work 
and  practically  putting  an  end  to  the  business  activi¬ 
ties  of  two  towns.  Judge  Clarke  who  had  appointed 
the  receiver,  in  making  an  inspection  of  the  line,  dis¬ 
covered  the  closed  shops.  To  him  this  condition 
was  not  only  bad  for  the  men  and  the  town;  it  was 
bad  economy  for  the  road. 

The  result  of  this  policy  [he  wrote  the  receiver] 
is  that  you  have  now  between  18  per  cent,  and  20 
per  cent,  of  the  freight  cars  of  the  company  so  out 
of  repair  that  they  cannot  be  used,  as  against  a 
normal  percentage  in  that  condition  of  2  per  cent, 
to  4  per  cent.,  and  about  30  per  cent,  of  the  engines 
are  not  in  condition  for  use. 

You  advise  me  that  this  policy  is  adopted  to  the 
end  that  by  this  rigid  economy  you  may  be  able  to 
make  from  the  earnings  of  the  lines  certain  interest 
payments  which  fall  due  in  February  and  March 
next. 

Of  course,  such  practice  serves  only  to  postpone 
the  expenditures  of  money  for  repairs  of  cars  and 
engines.  It  will  be  necessary  to  make  these  repairs 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


269 


at  latest  next  spring,  even  if  business  continues  as 
it  now  is,  and  if  business  should  revive  to  any  con¬ 
siderable  extent  with  the  cars  and  engines  in  the 
condition  which  will  result,  you  will  not  be  able  to 
perform  the  public  function  which  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  lines  to  serve. 

In  addition  to  this,  such  policy  must  result  not 
only  in  inconvenience  and  perhaps  suffering  to  many 
employes,  but  it  will  result  also  in  a  disorganisation 
of  your  force  of  machinists,  which  might  prove  very 
serious  when  business  revival  comes.  The  best 
workmen  are  most  likely  to  get  other  employment. 

Upon  full  consideration  I  have  arrived  at  the  con¬ 
clusion  that  this  policy  of  extreme  economy  is  neither 
a  wise  one  economically  considered,  nor  a  just  one 
from  a  social  point  of  view,  having  regard  to  the 
welfare  of  the  men  employed,  and  I  therefore  write 
to  advise  you  that  you  are  authorised  and  directed 
by  this  court  to  employ  such  repair  forces  as  may 
be  necessary  to  prevent  further  accumulation  of  cars 
not  in  condition  fit  for  use,  and  to  reduce  the  number 
now  out  of  repair  as  rapidly  as  the  expense  of  doing 
so  can  be  paid  from  the  earnings  of  the  lines. 

If  business  revives  at  an  early  date,  there  will  be 
no  difficulty  in  meeting  the  fixed  charges  due  in  Feb¬ 
ruary  and  March,  and  if  it  does  not  revive,  other 
provisions  will  have  to  be  made  for  the  making  of 
these  payments. 

This  is  a  fair  statement  of  the  point  of  view  of  all 
scientific  managers.  A  way  must  be  found  to  keep 
open.  This  is  of  course  very  difficult  in  the  large 


270 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


group  of  industries  known  as  seasonal,  but  it  is  in 
these  industries  that  scientific  managers  are  doing 
some  of  their  finest  and  most  revolutionary  work. 
Take  for  instance  the  problem  and  the  attempts  to 
meet  it  that  are  making  by  the  manager  of  the  Plimp¬ 
ton  Press  at  Norwood,  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Henry 
P.  Kendall. 

The  Plimpton  Press  publishes  school  books 
chiefly.  “  School  book  publishers,”  says  Mr.  Ken¬ 
dall,  “  place  the  bulk  of  their  orders  in  June,  July, 
and  August,  with  more  or  less  rush  work  in  Septem¬ 
ber.  This  is  due  very  largely  to  the  fact  that  school 
boards  make  their  adoptions  for  both  state,  county, 
and  town,  in  June,  for  the  succeeding  school  year. 
The  publishers  for  this  reason  are  unable  to  antici¬ 
pate  with  much  accuracy  what  their  requirements  will 
be  until  they  have  received  word  of  the  adoptions. 
Furthermore,  there  is  so  much  red  tape  connected 
with  state,  county,  city,  and  town  accounting  that  the 
publishers  do  not  receive  their  money  very  promptly: 
and  it  ties  up  a  very  considerable  amount  of  capital 
to  manufacture  books  and  carry  them  in  stock  during 
the  dull  period,  which  is  December,  January,  and 
February,  and  hold  these  books  for  delivery  in  the 
summer,  to  be  sold  and  paid  for  very  late  in  the  fol¬ 
lowing  fall.” 

Here,  then,  is  a  condition  quite  outside  of  the  in¬ 
dustry  itself  making  mischief  for  hundreds  of  men 
and  women.  The  Plimpton  Press  believes  this  can 
and  should  be  corrected  by  those  responsible,  and  is 
using  every  effort,  financial  and  otherwise,  to  get  the 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


271 


publishers  dealing  with  them  to  anticipate  their  or¬ 
ders  and  to  make  it  of  financial  advantage  to  them  to 
manufacture  as  much  as  possible  during  the  winter 
or  dull  months. 

Almost  every  industry  has  some  similar  outside 
condition  holding  it  up  in  one  season,  driving  it  in  an¬ 
other  to  the  consequent  demoralisation  of  its  force. 
The  Clothcraft  Shop  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  for  in¬ 
stance,  finds  that  an  outside  condition  which  hampers 
it  in  its  efforts  to  give  regular  employment  is  the 
practice  of  many  mills  of  holding  up  the  delivery  of 
orders  for  cloth  for  two  and  three  months.  This 
works  two  evils  to  the  maker  of  clothes:  it  prevents 
proper  inspection  of  the  cloth,  the  manufacturer  be¬ 
ing  forced,  if  he  is  to  catch  the  market,  to  make  up 
what  he  would  otherwise  reject,  and  it  forces  him 
to  close  or  work  on  half  time  in  one  month,  on 
overtime  others.  Mr.  Richard  Feiss,  the  manager 
of  the  Clothcraft  Shop,  believes  that  such  a  situation 
could  be  corrected  by  the  clothiers’  trade  associa¬ 
tions.  Their  great  business,  he  contends,  is  to  stand¬ 
ardise  trade  conditions.  To  enable  enterprising 
manufacturers  to  anticipate  a  season’s  demand  he 
would  have  them  establish  a  standard  scale  of  sizes. 
Mr.  Feiss  himself  has  overcome  largely  the  fluctua¬ 
tion  in  the  trade  by  pushing  a  line  of  staple  goods. 
The  factory  is  kept  busy  on  these  many  days  between 
seasons,  when  otherwise  it  would  be  idle.  This,  of 
course,  requires  close  and  intelligent  study  of  the 
market  and  complete  co-operation  between  the  pur¬ 
chasing,  the  sales,  and  the  manufacturing  depart- 


272 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ments,  but  this  is  exactly  what  one  gets  in  a  thorough 
application  of  the  principle  of  scientific  management 
such  as  has  been  made  in  the  Clothcraft  Shop. 

At  the  Plimpton  Press  Mr.  Kendall  has  proved 
that  regular  work  is  much  more  possibe  if  the  worker 
can  do  more  than  one  thing:  which  stands  to  reason. 
In  the  dull  months  he  trains  every  employe,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  do  at  least  one,  and,  if  practical,  two 
other  kinds  of  work  of  equal  grade  and  in  depart¬ 
ments  which  are  least  likely  to  be  congested  at  the 
same  time.  “  This  will  mean,”  he  says,  “  if  there 
is  a  congestion  of  pasting,  we  can  muster  girls  from 
gold-laying,  sewing  or  other  kinds  of  work  to  the 
pasting  department,  so  that  in  this  department  those 
wrho  might  be  short  of  work  at  that  time  will  get 
more  steady  employment  and  will  have  a  greater 
variety  to  their  work.” 

There  are  two  by-products  of  this  effort  which  are 
most  valuable:  one  is  showing  how  the  monotony  of 
labour  can  be  broken,  and  how  good  and  inspiriting 
it  is  to  break  it  —  something  the  average  labourer 
must  learn  by  experience;  the  other  is  the  demo- 
cratisation  of  labour  in  the  shop.  There  is  no  place 
in  the  world  —  outside  of  diplomatic  circles  and  pro¬ 
vincial  towns  —  where  caste  lines  are  more  severely 
drawn  than  among  the  girls  in  factories  and  shops. 
Treat  each  task  as  a  skilled  operation,  train  the  girl 
to  different  tasks  and  the  common  contempt  for  cer¬ 
tain  forms  of  work  will  largely  disappear.  Mr. 
Kendall  tells  me  there  are  girls  in  the  clerical  de¬ 
partment  of  the  Plimpton  Press  that  gladly  take  a 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


273 


machine  in  dull  times.  Sometimes- he  has  girls  give 
up  their  tasks  to  take  machines.  Nobody  despises 
any  task  there  for  the  reason  that  scientific  manage¬ 
ment  has  made  each  respectable. 

This  variety  in  labour  for  which  Mr.  Kendall 
strives  is  a  variation  of  what  Henry  Ford  in¬ 
cluded  in  his  exciting  schemes  for  improving  and 
regulating  the  conditions  of  workingmen  in  his  auto¬ 
mobile  shop.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Ford 
proposed,  in  case  of  dull  times,  to  find  places  o.n 
farms  for  the  men  laid  off.  Organised  co-operation 
between  manufacturers,  farmers,  and  gardeners  is  a 
practical  measure  capable  of  absorbing  an  enormous 
mass  of  unemployed.  I  have  seen  it  practised  by 
individual  workers  with  success.  I  have  in  mind  a 
skilled  fur  worker  who  for  four  to  five  months  of 
the  year  earns  from  four  to  six  dollars  a  day  and 
nothing  the  rest  of  the  year.  He  has  a  large  fam¬ 
ily.  Eight  years  ago  he  bought  an  abandoned  farm 
in  Connecticut.  All  year  round  that  farm  gives  a 
comfortable,  roomy  house  to  his  family,  fuel,  fresh 
eggs,  milk,  vegetables,  a  horse.  The  children  are 
growing  up  strong  and  decent.  In  dull  seasons  the 
fur  worker  himself  is  slowly  restoring  his  land  and 
always  keeping  himself  fit. 

Manufacturers  are  usually  sceptical  about  the  pos¬ 
sibility  of  distributing  through  the  year  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  an  article  for  which  the  demand  is  seasonal 
and  of  which  competition  and  fashion  force  an  in¬ 
cessant  change  of  models.  This  is  the  production 
problem  of  the  automobile  makers.  It  has  been  per- 


274 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


fectly  solved  in  at  least  one  factory  by  a  thorough 
application  of  the  principles  of  scientific  manage¬ 
ment.  This  factory  is  that  of  the  Franklin  Manu¬ 
facturing  Co.  of  Syracuse,  New  York. 

Mr.  George  D.  Babcock,  the  production  manager 
of  the  company,  faced  this  problem,  to  state  it 
formally: — “To  manufacture  large  costly  units  in 
limited  quantity,  the  rule  of  demand  for  which  is 
affected  by  the  seasons  and  the  design  subject  to  fre¬ 
quent  changes.” 

Four  years  ago  the  firm  was  employing  for  a  part 
of  the  year  a  large  number  of  men  drawn  from  what¬ 
ever  labour  market  had  them  to  spare.  They  might 
or  might  not  be  trained  for  the  task.  As  soon  as 
the  peak  began  to  flatten,  the  workmen  were  dis¬ 
missed.  The  company  did  not  like  it.  It  was  bad 
for  the  men,  for  them,  and  for  the  community. 
Could  the  peak  be  cut  off  permanently  and  a  uniform 
load  of  employment  be  established  or,  to  put  it  in 
another  way,  could  they  control  their  output,  or 
should  it  continue  to  control  them? 

They  began  a  scientific  analysis  of  their  work, 
learning  what  its  operations  and  elements  were;  and 
gradually  building  up  from  what  they  had  learned 
they  were  able  to  do  the  thing  they  had  set  out  to 
do  —  eliminate  the  peak  —  use  practically  the  same 
number  of  men  throughout  the  year.  Since  the  first 
of  July,  1912,  Mr.  Babcock  claims  the  men  employed 
have  been  relatively  constant,  although  the  cars 
produced  have  varied  considerably. 

Such  an  achievement  is  a  genuine  contribution  to 


STEADYING  THE  JOB  275 

the  unemployment  problem.  What  has  been  done 
can  be  done. 

One  of  Mr.  Babcock’s  results  is  particularly  grati¬ 
fying  to  those  who  believe  that  a  more  scientific  man¬ 
agement  of  the  average  factory  would  solve  many 
of  the  labour  difficulties.  It  has  been  freely  charged 
by  critics  of  the  system  that  it  eliminated  the  man  of 
fifty  or  more,  that  he  could  not  endure  its  speed  and 
strain.  As  one  of  the  objects  of  the  system  is  to  fix 
a  reasonable  speed  and  to  remove  strains,  it  would 
seem  as  if  it  ought  to  be  the  friend  of  the  man  of 
fifty.  Mr.  Babcock  contends  that  it  is. 

“  I  think,”  he  says,  “  that  I  am  reasonably  fair  in 
saying  that  we  have  the  most  completely  developed 
plan  of  scientific  management  under  the  Taylor  prin¬ 
ciples.  This  has  been  put  into  effect  with  almost  no 
disturbance,  either  in  the  product  or  the  relations  be¬ 
tween  our  workmen  or  supervisors.  The  mere  fact 
that  twenty  per  cent,  of  a  thousand  men  are  over 
fifty  years  of  age  would  give  some  indication  of  our 
ability  to  use  all  men  if  they  are  particularly  fitted 
into  plans  which  have  been  developed  for  them.  In 
fact,  if  we  were  to  take  the  day’s  work  of  a  sturdy 
man  in  full  strength,  I  am  sure  we  would  find  fully 
fifty  per  cent,  of  his  time  spent  in  doing  things  that 
a  man  sixty-five  years  of  age  could  as  well  accom¬ 
plish.  If  it  be  heavy  shovelling,  it  is  true  that  he 
forces  his  shovel  into  the  earth,  lifts  it,  but  from  that 
point,  if  it  could  be  functionalised,  the  older  man 
could  easily  dump  and  return  it  for  its  next  load.  A 
careful  study  of  a  large  industry  will  indicate  the 


276 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


possibilities  of  using  men  of  all  ages  usefully,  and 
this  is  especially  true  where  new  fresh  minds  are 
planning  for  their  tasks.” 

This  experience  alone  is  a  signal  contribution  to 
the  unemployment  problem.  No  one  of  its  dis¬ 
tressing  features  has  been  more  hopeless  than  that 
of  the  old  ftian  out  of  work.  Scientific  management 
finds  work  for  the  old  man. 

There  are  many  minor  devices  practised  by  en¬ 
lightened  employers  to  stabilise  work.  Where  the 
vacation  is  recognised  as  an  employe’s  due,  it  is  ad¬ 
justed  so  as  to  help  regularise  employment.  Piling 
up  standard  stocks  and  putting  a  plant  in  order  may 
help  a  little,  but  they  can  do  but  little.  A  factory 
frequently  must  come  to  short  time.  There  are 
many  experiments  making  in  handling  short  time  to 
the  best  advantage.  The  ideal  way  is  by  thorough 
co-operation  of  men  and  managers.  If  the  condi¬ 
tions  that  make  short  time  necessary  are  put  frankly 
to  a  force  there  is  little  danger  that  they  will  not  come 
up  generously  and  bravely  to  the  need.  It  is  the 
stupid  practice  of  keeping  the  force  utterly  in  the 
dark  about  the  shop,  its  aims,  its  successes  and  fail¬ 
ures,  that  prevents  co-operation.  Short  time  is  often 
handled  admirably  by  the  labourers.  Thus,  in  the 
bituminous  coal  fields  it  frequently  happens  that  when 
a  mine  is  closed  down  the  men  in  the  neighbouring 
mine  voluntarily  divide  their  work. 

It  can  be  laid  down,  I  think,  as  a  fact,  that  no 
employer  operating  under  the  new  code  lays  off  an 
employe  without  proper  notice.  When  legislatures 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


277 


get  around  to  the  point  of  making  this  illegal  they 
will  find  plenty  of  successful  employers  to  back  them 
up.  Mr.  Kendall  goes  further.  He  thinks  it  part 
of  his  business  to  aid  those  whom  he  has  to  send  away 
to  find  other  positions.  He  does  this  by  making 
it  known  to  competitors  and  others  in  the  trade  that 
he  is  glad  to  supply  employes  when  he  can  spare  them. 
The  Employment  Department  of  the  Press  also  has 
tried  to  work  out  some  kind  of  a  reciprocal  plan  with 
Filene’s  Department  Store  in  Boston,  by  which  girls 
could  be  taken  on  as  shop  girls  during  the  holiday 
rushes,  which  as  a  rule  are  the  dull  times  of  the 
Plimpton  Press. 

The  Employment  Department  also  arranges  that 
girls  who  live  at  home,  and  are  not  wholly  dependent 
on  what  they  earn  for  support,  are  laid  off  in  pref¬ 
erence  to  girls  who  are  wholly  dependent  on  their 
own  efforts  for  support,  or  have  others  in  their  fam¬ 
ily  dependent  on  them.  This  applies  to  the  men  as 
well.  That  is,  single  men  are  laid  off  in  preference 
to  married  men. 

Efforts  like  these  of  Mr.  Kendall  may  be  developed 
to  handle  satisfactorily  a  force  of  a  few  hundred; 
but  when  it  comes  to  handling  the  thousands  which 
are  thrown  into  the  labour  market  by  the  closing  of 
the  lumber  or  the  harvesting  or  ice-cutting  seasons, 
by  the  failure  of  great  mills,  or  even  by  the  sudden 
bottling  up  of  commerce,  as  happened  in  1914,  they 
are  utterly  inadequate. 

Is  the  employer,  then,  free  of  responsibility?  He 
certainly  is  not  under  the  new  code.  He  now  be- 


278 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


comes  a  partner  in  public  efforts,  which  should  begin 
at  home.  What  are  these  working  people?  They 
are  the  mass  of  a  town’s  consumers.  Turn  them  out, 
and  houses  empty,  shops  decline  or  close  —  the  whole 
machinery  of  the  place  begins  to  rust.  It  is  to  the 
advantage  of  a  town  to  co-operate  in  e\ery  way  with 
employers  to  take  care  of  those  laid  off.  Can’t  be 
done?  It  is  done;  not  by  “  making  work,”  that  is, 
faking  tasks,  but  by  considering  what  necessary  public 
work  the  town  can  afford  and  by  making  a  contract 
with  the  idle  to  undertake  it. 

Listen  to  what  the  town  of  Duluth  did  in  1914. 
Soon  after  Christmas  it  found  itself  with  more  than 
a  usually  large  number  of  unemployed  men  on  hand. 
They  have  a  commission  form  of  government  in 
Duluth,  and  the  commissioners,  being  free  to  do 
promptly  the  thing  that  needed  to  be  done,  concluded 
to  test  the  matter  of  constructing  sewers  in  the  winter 
instead  of  in  spring  and  summer,  as  had  always  been 
the  practice.  The  men  who  were  able  to  do  digging 
were  put  to  work  the  first  of  February.  Employ¬ 
ment  was  given  to  all  who  applied,  who  were  able 
to  do  what  was  considered  a  day’s  work.  The  com¬ 
missioners  were  very  square  with  the  town,  refusing 
absolutely  to  take  men  who  were  just  out  of  the  hos¬ 
pital  or  those  that  they  found  on  trial  were  ineffi¬ 
cient.  That,  they  argued,  would  be  charity,  and 
they  had  no  right  to  assess  taxpayers  for  charity. 
By  the  first  of  June  a  mile  of  sewer  had  been  con¬ 
structed.  The  work  was  so  satisfactory  that  it  has 
been  decided  to  continue  the  sewer  construction  the 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


279 


coming  winter.  And  how  much  Duluth  has  gained ! 
She  has  kept  a  body  of  consumers,  kept  her  houses 
full,  kept  her  shops  going,  kept  faith  with  her  own 
sense  of  responsibility. 

It  is  idle  ever  to  say  there  is  no  work  to  be  done. 
To  such  as  plead  this  let  me  call  attention  to  the 
case  of  Pauly  of  Seattle.  The  story  was  told  by 
Pauly  himself  at  the  Federal  Industrial  Commission 
hearing  at  Seattle  in  August,  1914. 

Pauly  was  an  unskilled  itinerant  labourer.  When 
unemployment  was  at  its  worst  in  Seattle,  in  1914- 
15,  Pauly  organised  the  unemployed  into  “The 
Itinerants’  Labour  Union  ”  or  “  The  Hoboes’  Union 
of  America.”  He  secured  an  old  hospital  building, 
for  which  the  Central  Labour  Council  agreed  to  pay 
the  rent,  and  opened  it  up  as  a  lodging  house  for  the 
unemployed.  The  scheme  was  ridiculed  and  the 
building  facetiously  dubbed  “  The  Hotel  de  Gink.” 
Pauly  was  determined,  however,  in  spite  of  opposi¬ 
tion,  that  he  would  find  a  way  of  tiding  these  men 
over.  He  advertised  for  work.  He  sent  squads  of 
men  to  clean  up  vacant  lots.  For  others  he  got 
work  at  the  commission  houses,  where  they  sorted 
potatoes  and  took  in  payments  “  seconds,”  which 
the  men  carried  back  to  their  lodgings.  He  sent  out 
also  squads  of  men  to  clean  up  the  butcher  shops  and 
markets,  whenever  he  found  opportunity,  and  took 
the  second  cuts  of  meat  in  payment. 

In  the  same  way  he  got  the  bakeries  to  supply  him 
with  stale  bread.  Where  an  old  building  was  being 
torn  down,  he  got  an  opportunity  to  cart  off  the  lum- 


28o 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ber  that  was  not  usable;  in  this  way  he  supplied  the 
house  with  fuel  during  the  winter.  As  soon  as  it  was 
possible  he  began  to  get  contracts  for  clearing  stump 
land.  People  said  that  the  unemployed  did  not  want 
work.  Pauly  sent  a  gang  of  men  out  to  clear  some 
land  who  worked  more  than  a  month  in  the  rainy 
season  absolutely  without  shelter.  Pauly  would  not 
admit  to  the  place  any  man  who  was  unwilling  to 
work,  and  yet  in  Seattle  he  cared  for  more  than  two 
thousand  men  during  the  winter.  There  were  hold¬ 
ups  around  Seattle,  and  it  was  supposed  that  Pauly’s 
men  were  implicated,  whereupon  Pauly  showed  that 
his  men  must  be  in  the  house  at  10:30,  and  his  books 
always  showed  whether  they  were  or  not.  To  make 
doubly  sure,  he  called  in  the  police  without  warning, 
and  had  them  “  frisk  ”  every  lodger  in  the  building. 
Not  as  much  as  a  penknife  was  found  that  did  not 
belong  there.  Pauly  had  visions  of  getting  his  men 
permanently  onto  the  land.  He  hoped  to  get  a  con¬ 
tract  for  clearing  land,  where  plots  of  land  might  be 
taken  in  payment.  “  That’s  the  thing  that  will  settle 
this  employment  question  and  settle  it  for  all  time,” 
he  was  accustomed  to  say,  but  with  the  coming  of 
better  times  Pauly’s  constituents  scattered.  His  ex¬ 
perience  is  valuable  as  an  example  of  what  can  be 
done  in  times  of  slack  work. 

A  quick  turn  in  handling  unemployment  was  made 
in  New  York  City  in  the  fall  of  1914  by  the  women 
at  the  head  of  what  is  known  as  the  Vacation  Com¬ 
mittee,  an  organisation  which  endeavours  to  meet 
various  needs  of  working  women.  It  illustrates  ad- 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


281 

mirably  what  organisations  of  all  sorts  might  do  to 
take  care  of  a  sudden  influx  of  unemployed.  The 
war  threw  many  women,  particularly  stenographers, 
clerks,  saleswomen,  out  of  positions.  As  soon  as  the 
Vacation  Committee  saw  the  situation  it  decided  to 
open  a  free  employment  bureau.  It  did  not  stop  to 
consider  how  to  organise ;  it  simply  opened  an  office ; 
sent  letters  broadcast  among  the  employers  stating 
that  the  Committee  was  going  to  do  what  it  could  to 
place  the  women  who  came  to  it,  and  asked  co¬ 
operation.  In  the  first  week  it  placed  50  out  of  150 
applicants. 

But  the  sight  of  so  many  applicants  whom  they 
could  not  place  was  too  much  for  the  Committee. 
“  Let  us  give  them  work,”  somebody  said.  “  Why 
not  set  them  to  making  garments  for  the  wounded 
soldiers,  paying  them  50  cents  a  day  until  we  can  find 
places  for  them?  ”  This  was  done  almost  as  quickly 
as  thought  of.  The  girls  belonging  to  the  Associa¬ 
tion  who  were  at  work,  rallied  valiantly  to  the  enter¬ 
prise,  and  in  their  first  meeting,  after  the  idea  was 
launched,  subscribed  thirty-six  dollars  toward  the  new 
undertaking. 

But  the  problem  of  unemployment,  particularly  as 
it  stands  now,  is  frequently  too  great  to  be  handled 
by  the  most  enlightened  employers  co-operating  with 
the  most  willing  town.  The  only  agency  to  which 
the  employers  can  turn,  with  any  confidence  that  those 
he  is  discharging  will  be  rapidly  placed,  is  the  new 
Free  Public  Employment  Bureau,  which  is  coming 
into  existence.  There  are  too  few  of  them,  and  in 


282 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


those  which  exist  the  management  is  often  so  stupid 
that  they  are  practicaJly  useless.  However,  Wiscon¬ 
sin  furnishes  a  model.  The  free  bureaus  in  the  Wis¬ 
consin  States  date  back  several  years,  but  they  never 
amounted  to  much  until  Milwaukee  employers  and 
authorities  took  hold  of  the  situation  some  four  years 
ago,  inaugurating  a  movement  in  which  city,  county, 
employers  and  employes  wrere  represented  equally. 
The  upshot  of  this  co-operative  movement  was  that 
the  State  joined,  in  the  person  of  the  Industrial  Com¬ 
mission. 

I  spent  a  half  day  in  the  office  of  the  Milwaukee 
bureau  in  1914.  It  is  a  big  roomy  place,  a  circular 
desk  occupying  its  centre.  Within  are  the  force 
—  men  chosen  carefully  for  ability  and  experience 
in  the  work  and  promoted  solely  on  their  record. 
Without  are  the  unemployed.  There  were  probably 
two  hundred,  young  and  old,  waiting  that  morning. 
Their  faces  —  eager,  hopeful,  careless,  sullen  or 
resolute,  hangdog,  stupid,  intelligent  —  banked 
about  the  desk  were  a  thrilling  sight.  As  their 
names  were  given  there  was  a  quick  search  in  the 
big  cabinets  which  told  the  history  of  the  bureau’s 
dealings  with  each  applicant,  to  see  whether  he  had 
been  there  before,  to  find  wThy  he  was  back. 

Here  is  a  new  man,  Olaf  Ericsson.  The  card 
that  the  interpreter  fills  out  reads:  Twenty-eight 
years  old  —  speaks  no  English  —  strong  —  clear¬ 
eyed  —  firm-lipped  —  used  to  simple  living,  to  the 
woods,  to  ice-cutting,  to  farming,  just  the  man  for 
forest  work  in  Wisconsin.  What  is  there  for  him? 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


283 


At  a  desk  within  the  big  circle  is  the  man  who  is  in 
touch  with  the  employers  of  the  town  and  the  State. 
Just  as  these  men  pour  in  every  morning  looking  for 
work,  so  every  morning  the  employers  who  use  the 
bureau  pour  in  their  requests.  There’s  one  in  there 
this  morning  for  sixty  men  to  go  to  the  North  Woods. 
The  wages  are  $1.65  a  day;  board  is  $4  per  week; 
railroad  fare  is  paid  one  way.  The  bureau  knows 
this  employer.  He  keeps  his  engagement.  Will 
Olaf  go?  He  will.  Quickly  the  clerk  fills  out  the 
necessary  forms  for  the  office  record,  and  as  quickly 
gives  Olaf  his  directions.  He  also  drops  into  the 
mail  box  a  post  card  directed  to  the  lumberman,  in 
which  the  enclosed  form  is  filled  out. 

INDUSTRIAL  COMMISSION  OF  WISCONSIN 

Free  Employment  Office 

Superior, . .  19.. 

To . 


In  reply  to  your  request  for  . 

I  am  sending  you  the  bearer,  M .  If 

you  hire  bearer  please  sign  below  and  return  this  card  by 
mail. 

. Supt. 

Applicant  has  been  hired. 

Signature  . 

(Reverse) 

FREE  EMPLOYMENT  OFFICE 

813  Tower  Avenue, 

Superior,  Wis. 


284 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


If  Olaf  reported,  and  I  have  no  doubt  he  did,  hav¬ 
ing  looked  into  hk  eyes,  two  or  three  days  later  the 
card  came  back  with  his  new  employer’s  name  signed 
to  it. 

If  the  “  job  ”  had  been  in  town  this  last  formality 
would  have  been  conducted  by  telephone.  That  is, 

the  employer  would  have  been  informed  that  A - 

B - was  en  route,  and  requested  that  if  he  did  not 

appear  to  inform  the  office  at  the  end  of  a  short  fixed 
time. 

Next :  An  elderly  machinist  —  experienced,  good 
references,  ten  years  in  a  Milwaukee  concern  recently 
closed  down  as  a  result  of  an  overdose  of  expansion. 
The  failure  thrust  into  the  State  at  least  one  hundred 
excellent  machinists  of  different  ages.  Already  the 
bureau  had  placed  twenty-five  in  the  State.  But  this 
man  owned  his  home  in  Milwaukee.  He  must  wait. 
“  He’s  been  coming  daily  for  a  week  now,”  they 
tell  me.  kk  But  we  are  sure  to  place  him  here,  he 
is  a  good  man.  We’ve  sent  him  to  various  shops 
in  the  town.  It  is  not  his  kind  who  are  our  prob¬ 
lem.” 

However,  here  is  a  problem:  one  of  those  who 
turn  up  regularly  every  season,  a  tramp  Jack-of-all- 
trades.  They  show  me  his  record,  a  bunch  of  cards. 
It  is  not  an  employment  bureau  that  will  keep  this 
man  out  of  the  labour  market.  He  belongs  to  quite 
a  different  set.  There  are  plenty  of  these,  more 
than  there  are  of  the  legitimate  unemployed.  Mr. 
Leiserson,  the  former  secretary  of  the  Milwaukee 
office  and  the  representative  there  of  the  Industrial 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


285 


Commission,  says  that  if  there  are  a  hundred  jobs 
for  250  applicants  the  office  does  not  worry.  Why? 
Because  so  large  is  the  number  of  the  untrained,  the 
unfit,  the  lazy,  the  roving:  other  agencies  must  handle 
these. 

The  State  of  Wisconsin  now  has  in  operation  four 
free  employment  offices,  including  the  one  at  Mil¬ 
waukee.  In  the  year  ending  June,  1915,  these  of¬ 
fices  received  52,568  applications  for  work  and  31,- 
°9 5  requests  for  help  from  employers.  They  se¬ 
cured  something  over  22,000  positions.  In  the  year 
ending  June,  1916,  the  applications  for  work  were 
a  little  less  than  50,000,  the  requests  for  help  some¬ 
thing  over  50,000,  the  positions  secured  33,234. 

There  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  every  State 
should  not  do  something  of  this  kind,  and  at  the  same 
time  develop  such  a  co-operation  between  cities,  and 
between  cities  and  country,  that  the  labour  market 
would  be  under  entire  control.  And  if  cities  and 
localities  within  a  State  can  so  co-operate,  why  could 
not  these  different  States  co-operate  with  a  Federal 
agency  acting  as  a  clearing  house? 

Such  an  organisation  would  do  away  with  many 
of  the  hardships  which  come  from  following  rumours 
of  work,  as,  for  instance,  at  the  time  of  the  Panama 
Exposition,  when  thousands  of  men  went  to  San 
Francisco,  on  the  mere  hearsay  that  the  Exposition 
offered  work  for  all.  An  official  bureau  in  San 
Francisco  would  send  broadcast  the  exact  wants  of 
the  Exposition,  and  the  national  headquarters  of 
labour  would  spread  the  facts.  This  is  no  dream: 


286 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


it  is  but  the, natural  expansion  of  what  Mr.  Kendall 
does  when  he  tries  to  place  labour  in  Boston;  what 
Duluth  does  rather  than  lose  its  workingmen;  wrhat 
Wisconsin  does  for  the  State. 

For  over  twenty  years  Germany  has  been  handling 
her  labouring  men  and  women  in  this  intelligent  and 
humane  fashion.  Each  state  in  the  empire  has  fifty 
or  more  labour  exchanges.  Each  capital  city  has  an 
exchange  which  acts  as  a  clearing  house  for  the  pro¬ 
vincial  exchanges.  Between  these  labour  clearing 
houses  in  the  capital  cities  there  is  a  steady  flow  of 
communication.  If  a  man  cannot  be  placed  in  his 
own  city  he  may  be  in  another;  if  not  in  his  state, 
then  in  another.  Work  is  found  for  him.  A  mil¬ 
lion  or  more  men  and  women  are  placed  every  year 
by  this  organisation. 

An  excellent  beginning  has  been  made  by  the 
Federal  Government  which  eventually  will  work 
into  something  like  the  German  system.  In  1907 
there  was  established  in  connection  with  the  Bureau 
of  Immigration  in  the  Department  of  Labour  what 
was  called  a  Division  of  Information.  This  bureau 
was  intended  to  aid  in  distributing  aliens  through 
the  country.  At  the  end  of  the  first  two  years,  June 
30,  1909  it  had  been  able  to  direct  about  5000 
workers  to  places  of  employment.  At  the  end  of 
the  next  year,  1910,  it  actually  secured  employment 
for  4300,  and  gave  information  to  over  18,000. 
Up  to  1914  information  had  been  given  to  over 
108,000  people,  but  it  had  no  means  of  knowing 
how  many  were  really  placed.  T  his  activity  of  the 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


287 


Bureau  of  Immigration  was,  by  the  law,  confined 
to  aliens.  The  farther  the  work  was  carried,  how¬ 
ever,  the  more  deeply  the  department  felt  that  its 
aid  ought  to  be  extended  to  all  workless  and  money¬ 
less  men.  In  January,  1915  this  power  was  given 
to  the  Department  of  Labour.  “  The  purpose  of 
the  Department  of  Labour,”  the  new  act  reads 
“  shall  be  to  foster,  promote  and  develop  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  wage  earners  of  the  United  States,  to  im¬ 
prove  their  working  conditions,  and  to  advance  their 
opportunities  for  profitable  employment.”  Under 
this  new  power  what  looks  like  a  very  practical  or¬ 
ganisation  is  operating.  The  entire  United  States 
has  been  divided  into  eighteen  distribution  zones. 
Each  zone  has  its  headquarters  with  sub-branches. 
The  last  report,  made  in  June  1915,  gives  79  dis¬ 
tribution  offices.  The  work  of  these  offices  is  of 
course  to  find  out  what  opportunities  there  are  for 
employment  in  their  territory,  to  notify  headquar¬ 
ters,  and  to  assist  in  distributing  any  labour  that 
may  be  sent  to  the  division.  In  the  first  year  under 
the  extended  power  given  to  the  bureau  over  90,000 
persons  applied  for  information,  and  nearly  12,000 
were  directed  to  employment.  It  is  obvious  that 
with  such  a  beginning  as  this,  and  the  interest  and 
the  intelligence  with  which  the  Labour  Department 
is  pushing  the  work,  we  are  coming  every  day  nearer 
to  something  like  a  satisfactory  handling  of  the  un¬ 
employed. 

-  But  let  all  this  be  done,  and  any  employer  will  tell 
you  that  still  there  will  be  slips.  What  then  is  to  be 


288 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


done?  'That  fine  and  energetic  body,  the  American 
Association  of  Labour  Legislation,  is  strong  for  un¬ 
employment  insurance.  The  day  is  coming  when  it 
will  be  as  universal  as  compensation  is  rapidly  becom¬ 
ing.  In  scores  of  industries  it  has  long  existed  in 
some  form.  My  own  first  experience  with  unem¬ 
ployment  insurance  was  years  ago  in  a  mining  village 
of  Ohio.  I  was  visiting  friends,  who  were,  as  so 
often  happened  in  those  days,  both  farmers  and  coal 
operators.  A  rich  vein  had  been  opened  under  their 
land.  They  were  mining  it,  but  were  loath  to  give 
up  the  life  they  loved.  Every  fall  the  family  slaugh¬ 
tered  and  put  down  twenty-five  or  more  fat  hogs. 
“  What  for?  ”  I  asked.  “  To  be  ready  for  the  shut¬ 
down.  It  always  comes.  The  coal  can’t  be  moved. 
The  miners  never  have  anything  ahead,  or  so  little  it 
is  insufficient.  We  give  them  their  houses  and  sup¬ 
ply  pork,  potatoes  and  apples!  ”  It  was  not  charity 
in  their  eyes.  It  was  a  form  of  insurance. 

There  are  many  efforts  made  to  prepare  employes 
for  the  possible  rainy  day  —  the  dull  season  —  by 
saving-funds  and  factory  banks.  They  have  a 
double  end:  the  teaching  of  thrift  and  the  prepara¬ 
tion  for  trouble.  Out  of  all  these  experiments  there 
is  bound  to  come  some  form  of  unemployment  insur¬ 
ance  which  will  be  truly  co-operative,  both  in  its  man¬ 
agement,  its  risks,  and  its  rewards.  But,  after  all, 
insurance  is  only  a  sail  to  windward  —  something  to 
w'hich  you  turn  when  everything  else  has  failed.  It 
is  like  the  rescue  squad  in  the  mine.  Use  it  when  you 
must,  but  —  I  heard  this  from  the  lips  of  Thomas 


STEADYING  THE  JOB 


289 


Lynch,  leader  in  safety  work  in  mines,  “  To  - 

with  rescue  work.  Prevent  accidents.” 

Keep  the  wheels  moving!  That  is  the  great  re¬ 
sponsibility  of  those  who  presume  to  employ.  It  is 
not  less  a  responsibility  than  for  the  banker  to  keep 
his  doors  open.  To  co-operate  with  the  employer 
in  this  work  is  the  duty  of  the  community,  of  the 
State,  of  the  Federal  Government. 

We  must  organise  men  and  women  for  labour  as 
for  war.  Watch  the  perfection  of  the  training  and 
the  movement  of  the  masses  that  at  this  moment  are 
meeting  in  unspeakable,  infernal  slaughter  in  Europe. 
See  how  the  humblest  is  fitted  to  his  task.  With 
what  ease  great  bodies  wheel,  turn,  advance,  retreat. 
Consider  how,  after  standing  men  in  line  that  they 
may  be  knocked  to  pieces,  they  promptly  and  scien¬ 
tifically  collect  such  as  have  escaped,  both  friend  and 
foe,  and  (oh,  amazing  and  heart-breaking  human 
logic!)  under  the  safe  sign  of  the  cross,  tenderly 
nurse  them  back  to  health. 

If  this  can  be  done  for  War,  should  we  do  less  for 
Peace? 


» 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 

The  last  word  on  which  an  observer  of  the  under¬ 
takings  I  have  been  reporting  falls  back,  if  he  is 
candid  and  free  of  theory,  is  pretty  sure  to  be  educa¬ 
tion.  This  is  teaching.  This  shop  is  a  school  and 
a  mighty  practical  one.  It  takes  the  man  or  woman 
where  he  is  and  gives  him  what  he  needs,  whether 
that  be  training  in  keeping  clean,  in  taking  care  of 
wounds  even  as  slight  as  needle  pricks,  in  the  joy  of 
games,  in  the  wisdom  of  thrift,  or  in  the  possibility 
of  improving  in  his  trade.  It  is  a  system  which  is 
particularly  valuable  to  two  great  classes  of  labour 
untouched  by  any  existing  agencies,  the  crowds  of 
young  people  who  come  into  the  factory  undisci¬ 
plined  and  untrained,  and  the  masses  of  adult  labour¬ 
ers  to  whom  from  a  variety  of  causes  life  and  labour 
have  become  dull  and  joyless. 

Both  the  safety  and  health  movements  illustrate 
the  kind  of  education  men  get  from  these  undertak¬ 
ings.  It  was  pointed  out  in  the  chapter  on  Safety- 
how  large  a  percentage  of  its  success  depends  upon 
training.  The  manager  is  after  safety,  but  in  order 
to  get  this  he  must  stimulate  a  faculty  which  our  pres¬ 
ent  educational  system  often  leaves  undeveloped,  and 
that  is  attention.  Improbable  as  it  may  seem,  it  is  a 

290 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


291 


fact  which  every  analysis  of  factory  accidents  sup¬ 
ports,  that  the  average  workman  gives  almost  no 
heed  to  the  condition  of  the  tools,  the  machinery  and 
the  material  he  handles.  The  first  undertaking  of 
an  intelligent  safety  programme  is  to  arouse  men’s 
attention,  and  once  this  is  done,  the  intellectual  effect 
is  striking.  The  man  who  comes  to  see  dangers  al¬ 
most  invariably  comes  to  exercise  his  mind  over  pre¬ 
vention.  All  up  and  down  the  shop  one  will  find 
men  studying  how  something  which  has  impressed 
them  as  unsafe  can  be  remedied.  Minds  which  were 
practically  torpid  throughout  the  day’s  work  spring 
into  activity.  In  many  big  mills  it  is  the  custom  to 
ask  analyses  of  accidents  which  have  happened  and 
suggestions  for  preventing  a  repetition.  Answers 
are  freely  turned  in,  some  of  them  most  ingenious. 
A  mind  which  has  once  begun  to  act  on  any  particular 
kind  of  problem  does  not  stop  there.  It  goes  on 
exercising  itself  on  other  problems. 

In  more  than  one  industrial  community  the  social 
value  of  the  safety  work  in  the  factory  has  been 
demonstrated.  The  man  who  has  formed  the  habit 
of  noticing  possible  causes  of  accidents  and  inventing 
ways  of  removing  them  becomes  a  kind  of  safety 
policeman  in  the  streets,  on  the  cars  and  in  his  home. 
I  have  noticed  again  and  again  in  the  vicinity  of  big 
mills  where  safety  had  been  thoroughly  installed  the 
care  of  the  men  about  the  street  cars,  their  rough  but 
kindly  warnings  and  instructions  to  women  and  chil- 
jdren.  The  whole  community  was  safer  because  of 
what  they  had  learned.  They  had  come  to  under- 


292 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


stand  that  recklessness  and  indifference  to  dangers, 
big  and  little,  are  a  cheap  and  foolish  business. 
They  had  been  taught  to  see  that  it  was  not  they 
alone  who  might  be  injured  by  carelessness:  it  was 
the  other  fellow.  A  man  thus  awakened  is  not  only 
a  better  workman,  but  he  is  a  better  citizen.  In 
thousands  of  cases  it  is  improbable  that  any  of  the 
forces  at  present  working  on  the  man  could  have  so 
educated  him  to  a  feeling  of  individual  responsibil¬ 
ity  about  others  both  in  and  out  of  the  factory  as  this 
safety  work  has  done. 

The  effect  on  the  city,  on  the  home  and  on  the 
community  of  the  factory  health  movement  is  obvi¬ 
ous  wherever  it  has  been  developed.  Cleanliness  as 
a  desirable  habit  of  life  is  fixed  in  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  minds  that  never  before  had  considered 
it  either  as  desirable  or  possible.  A  few  months  ago 
I  waited  for  a  train  in  a  steel  town  near  Pittsburgh 
at  the  closing  hour  when  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of 
men  were  pouring  out  of  a  mill  across  the  tracks  from 
the  station.  In  other  years  I  had  often  watched  the 
same  exodus  and  had  found  it  hard  to  believe  that 
the  black,  greasy,  tired  and  slouchy  individuals  could 
after  all  be  quite  like  men  in  other  walks  of  life. 
The  change  in  the  look  of  the  workmen  that  I 
watched  last  summer  was  almost  unbelievable.  This 
particular  factory  was  one  in  which  both  proper  bath¬ 
ing  facilities  and  lockers  had  been  installed,  as  they 
have  in  so  many  of  the  new  workshops.  At  least  a 
thousand  men  passed  under  my  eye  that  night  and  I 
saw  only  one  who  was  not  clean  in  flesh  and  clothes. 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


293 


Not  only  the  difference  in  their  looks,  but  the  differ¬ 
ence  in  their  attitude  toward  other  people,  towards 
life  in  general  was  surprising.  They  were  not 
ashamed  to  sit  down  beside  anybody.  The  skilled 
working  man  who  comes  dirty  and  greasy  into  a 
street  car  feels  a  little  out  of  temper  with  himself  and 
the  world,  because  of  the  contrast  into  which  he  is 
thrown  by  his  condition,  something  which  it  was  im¬ 
possible  in  the  old  shops  to  prevent.  Not  one  of 
these  men  that  I  watched  coming  out  of  the  mill 
need  to  have  been  or  was  ashamed  to  sit  beside  any 
man  or  woman  of  any  class.  They  were  as  fine, 
stalwart  and  intelligent  a  looking  body  as  one  would 
often  see.  Their  cleanliness  helped  their  own  self- 
respect  and  it  prevented  the  man  and  woman  whose 
occupation  requires  or  at  least  does  not  prevent  im¬ 
maculateness  from  drawing  aside. 

This  cleanliness  naturally  spreads  into  the  home. 
There  is  no  factory  service  worker  or  physician,  no 
observer  of  the  change  that  is  coming  over  industry 
who  does  not  know  what  effect  the  gospel  of  clean¬ 
liness  is  having  on  home  conditions.  It  is  of  course 
no  easy  task  to  bring  a  big  body  of  working  people 
to  whom  cleanliness  and  order  have  never  been 
taught  to  an  entire  reconstruction  of  their  habits. 
The  difficulty  with  bodies  of  untrained  girls  is  often 
very  great.  Their  untidy  habits,  not  only  in  the 
factory,  but  in  the  toilet  room  and  yards  of  the  fac¬ 
tory  are  well  known  to  those  who  work  among  them. 
It  takes  patience  and  tact  to  reform  them.  It  is  even 


294 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


difficult  to  persuade  them  to  wear  cheerfully  the  cap 
and  apron  in  employments  where  there  is  dust.  I 
have  known  girls  to  leave  because  they  were  ordered 
to  wear  caps,  although  it  was  plainly  to  their  inter¬ 
est.  One  of  the  cleverest  solutions  of  the  subject 
that  I  have  run  across  was  in  the  admirably  managed 
Scott  paper  factory  near  Philadelphia.  In  this  fac¬ 
tory  the  fore-woman  offered  a  prize  for  the  most  be¬ 
coming  pattern  of  cap  and  apron.  7  he  moment  that 
the  question  of  looks  was  introduced  the  girls  were 
interested.  7"hey  have  worked  out  a  most  effective 
combination  in  form  and  colour.  7'hey  are  pro¬ 
tected  in  their  work  and  as  a  group  of  workers 
are  thoroughly  attractive.  Perhaps  nothing  so  takes 
away  from  the  beauty  of  a  group  of  women  as  the 
lack  of  any  kind  of  harmony  or  plan  in  their  dress. 
One  is  never  more  conscious  of  this  than  when  he 
sees  a  group  in  a  becoming  uniform.  The  girls 
sense  this  and  make  the  most  of  their  regalia.  From 
attention  to  cleanliness  in  person  there  has  come 
in  the  Scott  factory  to  be  a  real  rivalry  in 
the  prevention  of  litter  in  and  about  machines.  At 
the  same  time  the  girls  are  taking  pride  in  their  lunch 
and  rest  room.  It  had  been  a  bare  place,  furnished 
only  with  necessaries,  but  with  flowers  and  with  an 
abundance  of  attractive  paper  which  the  concern 
makes,  they  have  turned  it  into  a  gay  and  convenient 
sitting  room.  They  have  had  an  education  in  the 
value  of  order,  harmony  and  appropriateness  which 
cannot  but  follow  them  into  the  street  and  home. 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL  295 

They  are  more  highly  developed  young  women  be¬ 
cause  of  their  factory  training. 

A  touching  change  comes  over  the  lives  of  many 
men  and  women,  particularly  those  that  are  young, 
from  the  training  for  social  life  and  healthy  amuse¬ 
ments  which  the  factory  often  gives.  They  are  liter¬ 
ally  taught  how  to  play,  to  use  a  vacation,  to  be  so¬ 
ciable.  For  one  reason  or  another  thousands  of 
workers  live  joyless  and  lonely  lives.  They  have  not 
the  education,  time,  self-direction,  money  and 
strength  to  seek  opportunities  for  social  life.  If 
they  are  to  have  this  salt  to  their  daily  labour  they 
must  be  taught  to  desire  it  and  shown  where  to  find  it. 
Now  this  is  a  delicate  and  slow  task.  Many  em¬ 
ployers  cannot  realise  that  the  use  of  athletic  fields, 
lunch  rooms,  clubhouses,  means  a  radical  change  in 
the  habits  of  their  employes.  If  it  has  been  the 
practice  to  eat  lunch  off  the  corner  of  one’s  machine 
it  will  be  a  wrench  to  eat  from  a  table  in  a  spick  and 
span  restaurant. 

I  remember  one  big  New  England  factory  which 
several  years  ago  built  a  fine  clubhouse  with  ample 
accommodations  for  every  man  and  woman  in  it. 
The  majority  had  come  to  use  it  after  several  years, 
but  always  there  were  men  scattered  through  the  fac¬ 
tory  eating  from  a  corner  of  a  machine  on  stormy 
days,  on  steps  or  lawn  outside  on  a  sunny  one. 
There  were  others  who  patronised  the  lunch  wagon 
which  daily  drove  into  the  premises  at  noon.  These 
were  the  non-clubable  fellows,  who  wanted  to  be  let 


296 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


alone,  or  those  who  hated  cleaning  up,  or  those  who 
were  shy.  The  management  had  had  the  good  sense 
to  leave  each  man  to  his  own  way.  The  steady,  if 
slow,  increase  in  the  numbers  who  used  the  lunch¬ 
room  was  their  reward. 

It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated  that  all  of  these 
undertakings  must  be  allowed  to  grow,  that  they  are 
to  succeed  only  through  education.  Their  failure 
usually  comes  from  an  attempt  to  impose  them  full 
size,  not  plant  them,  and  wait.  Men  of  fine  inten¬ 
tion  and  impatient  zeal  visit  a  great  industrial  estate 
like  that  of  the  Cadburys’  in  England.  They  find 
athletic  clubs  for  both  men  and  women,  self-directed 
and  largely  self-supporting,  working  enthusiastically 
and  regularly.  They  see  the  dinner  hour  and  Satur¬ 
day  half-holiday  utilised  to  the  full  for  sports  of 
every  possible  nature.  They  find  club-rooms  occu¬ 
pied,  the  library  books  in  wide  circulation,  indoor 
games  popular,  the  summer  holidays  fully  antici¬ 
pated. 

They  look  over  the  equipment,  athletic  field,  club¬ 
house,  tennis  grounds,  study  the  rules  and  regula¬ 
tions,  and  go  home  confident  that  by  another  summer 
they  will  have  in  their  smaller  group  a  fair  reproduc¬ 
tion  of  the  Cadbury  social  and  recreation  life.  They 
put  up  the  machinery  and  their  people  regard  it  with 
apathy  or  contempt.  What  they  do  not  sense  is  that 
it  has  taken  the  Cadburys  fifty  or  more  years  to  do 
what  they  have  done  at  Bournesville.  They  have 
built  it  as  they  have  built  their  markets,  slowly  and 
thoroughly.  It  has  been  an  evolution,  as  social  life 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


297 


must  always  be,  and  that  our  eager  and  hasty  Ameri¬ 
can  can  neither  understand  nor  abide.  His  motto 
is  “  Do  it.”  That  is  sufficient  for  a  machine  —  but 
not  for  a  man.  Teach  it  is  the  only  way  for  him. 

The  most  solid,  definite  and  far-reaching  training 
which  the  worker  gets  to-day  in  industry  seems  to  me 
to  come  through  scientific  management.  From  the 
standpoint  of  society  this  education  is  probably  the 
greatest  of  the  system’s  many  contributions.  It 
reaches  the  two  classes  which  need  it  most  —  the  un¬ 
skilled  worker,  man  and  woman  and  the  skilled 
worker,  grown  automatic  if  not  torpid.  It  reaches 
them  where  they  live.  It  is  education  while  they 
work. 

Of  all  the  evil  features  of  industry  to-day,  one  of 
the  most  evil  is  unskilled  work,  the  necessary  tasks 
which  are  really  despised.  Hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men  and  women  do  things  essential  to  our  very 
existence,  and  we  and  they  consider  them  menial; 
moreover,  we  cannot  conceive  that  they  can  be  digni¬ 
fied.  What  scientific  management  proposes  is  to 
make  all  tasks  skilled  in  a  sense,  that  is,  set  a  stand¬ 
ard  of  performance  and  teach  it  to  men. 

It  has  done  this  already  for  a  variety  of  operations 

which  it  has  been  the  habit  to  leave  to  the  untrained 

« 

individual.  Mr.  Taylor  in  developing  his  “  Law  of 
Heavy  Labour  ”  has  shown  how  what  is  akin  to  a 
trade  may  be  made  of  loading  iron  rails  and  shovel¬ 
ling  heavy  substances.  Carrying  and  laying  bricks, 
loading  and  wheeling  barrows  and  many  other  simi¬ 
lar  tasks  have  been  so  developed  that  men  can  be 


298 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


trained  to  do  them  properly.  One  has  only  to  com¬ 
pare  a  gang  of  men  shovelling  snow  in  a  city  street, 
most  of  them  unfitted  for  the  work,  their  tools  un¬ 
fitted  to  them,  no  standard  of  production  required, 
with  a  gang  of  shovellers  trained  and  equipped  for 
the  job,  to  realise  how  wretched  and  inhuman  and 
unskilled  work  can  be,  and  realising  this  one  cannot 
be  too  strong  an  advocate  of  a  system  which  makes 
it  possible  to  take  the  curse  out  of  all  heavy  work. 
True  there  are  those  who  oppose  the  idea.  Stand¬ 
ardise  unskilled  tasks  and  teach  them  to  men,  they 
say,  and  what  is  to  become  of  the  unskilled  labourer? 
The  questioner  does  not  see  that  the  elimination  of 
unskilled  work  means  the  elimination  of  the  unskilled 
worker,  nor  does  the  mind  which  sees  no  world  dif¬ 
ference  from  this  as  possible  admit  such  a  result,  and 
yet  this  is  what  scientific  management  in  its  ideal 
application  means.  It  proposes  to  develop  all  men 
so  that  they  may  do  something  well;  to  rid  the  world 
of  menial  tasks;  to  make  all  work  worth  doing. 

It  is  good  indeed  to  see  what  scientific  manage¬ 
ment  does  for  the  untrained  girl  who  seeks  work  in 
factory  or  shop.  How  does  she  learn  her  task  in 
the  old-fashioned  shop?  The  probability  is  that 
she  has  never  before  been  within  factory  walls,  never 
before  has  seen  the  machine  she  is  to  feed  or  run. 
A  driven  foreman  may  give  her  five  minutes  at  the 
start  —  more  likely  he  will  tell  her  to  watch  her 
neighbour.  That  is,  she  is  to  pick  up  the  work  as 
best  she  can.  Often  the  neighbour  is  unfriendly. 
She  resents  the  watching.  She  refuses  to  answer  the 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


299 


newcomer’s  questions.  Again  and  again  she  is  mali¬ 
cious,  hindering,  jeering. 

The  new  girl  who  “  spoils  work  ”  drives  a  needle 
through  her  finger,  goes  away  crying,  never  to  return, 
is  the  girl  who  swells  the  flood  of  “  floaters,”  which 
are  so  discouraging  a  feature  to  those  who  conduct 
big  enterprises  requiring  large  numbers  of  girls. 
She  is  practically  eliminated  by  the  new  methods. 
In  a  shop  run  according  to  scientific  principles,  a  new 
girl  is  put  under  the  care  of  the  instructor  at  the  start, 
and  the  instructor  spends  at  least  the  first  day  at  her 
side.  She  is  taught  her  machine,  shown  how  to  fol¬ 
low  her  instruction  card.  She  is  made  to  understand 
that  the  instructor  is  there  to  teach  and  help  her. 
The  stimulus  of  this  no  one  can  doubt.  Not  only  the 
advantage  to  both  girl  and  shop,  but  the  superior 
humanity  over  the  old  brutal  way  of  throwing  her  in 
and  letting  her  swim  out  cannot  be  questioned. 

This  training  makes  her  realise  that  her  employer 
thinks  what  she  is  doing  is  worth  teaching  and  worth 
watching.  She  is  doing  something  important.  The 
old  method  was  calculated  before  all  else  to  make  a 
worker  despise  her  task,  to  discourage  interest  in  it. 
Why  should  she  study  it  if  nobody  thought  enough 
of  it  to  teach  her?  That  was  her  unconscious  argu¬ 
ment.  We  complain  because  the  unskilled  girl  has 
no  interest  in  her  work.  Why  should  she  have, 
when  apparently  nobody  else  has? 

Moreover,  the  thing  she  does  often  has  no  mean¬ 
ing  for  her.  She  twists  a  foolish  little  wire,  folds 
a  bit  of  pasteboard,  stitches  endless  seams,  clips 


300 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ravellings.  She  does  not  see  her  operation  in  its 
relations  to  the  dozens  of  other  equally  trivial  opera¬ 
tions  that,  fitted  together,  make  a  useful  whole.  I 
have  often  talked  with  girls  who  had  not  the  least 
idea  where  and  how  the  things  they  made  day  after 
day  was  used.  How  can  a  worker  be  interested 
under  these  circumstances?  Introduce  them  prop¬ 
erly  to  the  factory,  explain  it  to  them  as  a  whole,  and 
their  attitude  of  mind  is  at  once  changed.  There  is 
a  Westinghouse  factory  in  Milwaukee  where  the 
manager  arranges  that  each  girl  before  she  goes  to 
work  be  conducted  over  the  entire  plant  and  be  shown 
all  of  the  various  operations  in  their  proper  sequence. 
When  she  finally  is  put  at  a  machine  she  ought  to 
know  exactly  the  relation  of  her  task  to  the  finished 
product.  She  is  making  something  worth  while,  a 
part  of  a  great  national  article.  She  is  a  servant  of 
society.  There  may  be  girls  too  dull  to  feel  this, 
but  not  many. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  pride  with  which  two  girls 
in  the  cotton  factory  referred  to  in  Chapter  VIII,  a 
factory  in  which  quality  and  pride  in  quality  are  care¬ 
fully  cultivated,  told  me  that  the  cloth  they  were 
weaving  was  for  the  sails  of  a  cup  defender !  They 
saw  themselves  as  related  to  a  great  national  event, 
in  which  everybody  was  interested,  and  if  the  boat 
carrying  the  sail  they  had  woven  should  win !  The 
builder  himself  wrould  scarcely  have  been  prouder. 

A  plant  in  which  this  pride  in  product  reaches 
down  to  even  the  humblest  worker  is  that  of  the 
Commonwealth  Steel  Company  at  Granite  City, 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


301 


Illinois.  The  concern  makes  a  steel  frame  used  to 
protect  the  ends  of  passenger  cars.  It  has  been 
proved  again  and  again,  in  case  of  collision,  that 
these  frames  prevent  the  cars  crumpling.  Battered 
examples  that  have  been  through  terrible  accidents 
are  shown  in  the  yards,  and  the  pride  of  everybody 
in  the  works  in  the  service  that  this  product  of  their 
hands  has  given  is  real  and  beautiful.  The  errand 
boy  in  the  office,  the  president  of  the  concern,  the 
waiter  in  the  shop  restaurant,  the  foundryman,  all  tell 
you  with  equal  exultation,  “  This  is  what  we  make 
here,  something  that  serves  men  and  women,  saves 
lives,  and  prevents  sorrow.” 

This  pride  in  product  is  skilfully  and  constantly 
fostered  in  this  extraordinary  plant.  Through  the 
C ommonwealther f  an  unusually  lively  little  factory 
paper,  everybody  learns  just  how  the  things  they  are 
making  are  serving  the  world.  It  is  impossible  that 
the  most  disgruntled  labourer  should  not  be  more 
or  less  heartened  by  having  it  put  to  him  persistently 
that  he  is  concerned  in  making  something  which  is 
good  for  men  and  women. 

A  factory  bulletin  like  the  C ommonwealther  can, 
if  it  will,  do  substantial  work  in  educating  a  force  in 
their  particular  craft.  This  is  being  done  well  by 
the  organ  of  the  American  Rolling  Mills  Company 
at  Middletown,  Ohio,  the  Armco  Bulletin f  as  it  is 
called,  a  handsome  little  periodical,  surprisingly 
well  edited.  Armco  publishes  every  now  and  then 
articles  on  the  processes  and  the  history  of  iron  and 
steel.  The  men  learn  through  it  more  than  most  of 


302 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


them  ever  dreamed  there  was  to  know  about  the  in¬ 
dustry  with  which  they  are  connected.  Again  in  the 
chief  plant  of  this  concern  at  Middletown  the  men 
in  entering  pass  daily  in  front  of  a  finely  equipped 
laboratory.  They  know  the  people  that  are  experi¬ 
menting  there.  They  learn  more  or  less  about  the 
new  developments.  The  whole  effect  of  this  is  to 
open  to  them  a  side  of  the  industry  which  is  a  sealed 
book  to  most  workers. 

The  Armco  Bulletin  does  not  by  any  means  con¬ 
fine  itself  to  concerns  directly  relating  to  the  trade. 
It  does  a  great  deal  to  encourage  the  outside  interests 
of  the  workers.  In  the  last  year  they  have  been  run¬ 
ning  a  series  of  amateur  photographs,  some  of  them 
unusually  beautiful,  made  by  men  in  various  depart¬ 
ments.  The  fostering  of  rivalry  in  a  taste  of  this 
sort  is  altogether  good.  Many  of  the  Bulletin’s 
articles  are  contributed  by  people  in  the  force.  Of 
course  all  of  this  is  the  best  kind  of  education.  It 
enlivens  minds  which  are  always  in  danger  of  becom¬ 
ing  dulled  by  hard  labour  in  which  there  is  little 
variety. 

One  of  the  most  stimulating  features  of  scientific 
management  has  always  been  the  encouragement  of 
suggestions.  The  management  says  to  workers,  “If 
you  can  tell  us  how  to  improve  anything  about  this 
plant,  we  will  listen  to  you,  and  if  what  you  have  to 
say  turns  out  to  be  practical,  you  shall  have  pay  for 
your  idea.  These  ideas  are  not  by  any  means  con¬ 
fined  to  suggestions  for  improvements  in  machines, 
they  include  better  methods  of  doing  anything  and 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


303 


everything  in  the  carrying  on  of  the  work.  In  many 
shops  I  have  seen  suggestion  boxes  into  which  the 
worker  could  drop  his  suggestion.  It  is  soon  discov¬ 
ered  by  managers  who  cultivate  this  feature  that  un¬ 
trained  workers  make  a  large  percentage  of  imprac¬ 
tical  and  foolish  suggestions,  that  is,  they  do  not 
know  how  to  suggest.  I  have  not  found  any  plant 
in  which  this  work,  so  important  for  the  worker,  was 
carried  on  more  intelligently  than  in  the  German- 
American  Button  Company  of  Rochester,  New 
York.  The  point  to  which  they  have  carried  their 
work  is  clearly  set  out  in  an  issue  of  their  factory 
paper,  Art  in  Buttons,  devoted  to  the  suggestion 
system.  The  following  article  makes  very  plain  the 
educational  value  of  the  plan. 

The  company’s  action  in  installing  the  suggestion  system 
was  prompted  by  two  motives,  the  obvious  one  of  course 
being  to  obtain  greater  efficiency  throughout  the  plant,  by 
getting  the  ideas  of  all  thoughtful  employes. 

The  other  motive,  however,  is  of  equal  importance,  al¬ 
though  it  is  very  frequently  overlooked  by  the  average  sug¬ 
gested  and  that  is,  the  opportunity  which  the  suggestion 
system  gives  every  worker  to  prove  to  his  head  or  foreman 
that  he  is  worthy  of  promotion.  This  is  perhaps  the  chief 
value  of  the  entire  plan,  since  in  this  way  it  has  become  pos¬ 
sible  to  place  in  positions  of  responsibility  those  men  who  are 
best  equipped  to  fill  them. 

Whenever  a  suggestion  describes  in  detail  conditions  which 
need  improvement,  and  then  sketches  a  carefully  thought  out 
remedy,  it  is  always  regarded  as  proof  that  the  signer  deserves 
consideration  for  advancement,  so  that  every  ambitious  em- 


304 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ploye  has  a  chance  to  make  his  ability  count.  A  good  sug¬ 
gestion  singles  out  the  wide-awake  man  from  his  fellow- 
workmen  who  take  no  interest  in  suggestions  and  who  give 
little  thought  to  the  problems  of  their  department;  so  get 
busy  and  use  your  head  if  you  want  to  win  out. 

No  matter  whether  you  already  have  the  suggestion  habit, 
or  whether  you  are  just  going  to  get  it,  remember  this  sec¬ 
ond  object  of  the  suggestion  system  —  the  expression  of 
individual  ability.  With  this  in  mind,  you  are  sure  to  sub¬ 
mit  suggestions  which  will  be  a  real  credit  to  you,  instead 
of  trifling  matters  which  should  be  brought  to  the  attention 
of  your  foreman. 

The  ideal  suggestion  should  present  a  carefully  worked 
out  and  logical  attempt  to  solve  some  really  serious  problem 
which  confronts  the  company,  be  it  large  or  small.  This 
does  not  mean  that  suggestions  about  more  trivial  matters 
are  undesirable,  but  those  of  the  first  class  are  the  natural 
product  of  a  mind  capable  of  carrying  responsibility.  Re¬ 
member  also  that  every  thoughtful  suggestion  counts  in  your 
favour,  and  try  for  quality  rather  than  quantity. 

Occasionally  suggestions  are  submitted  bearing  the  signa¬ 
tures  of  two  employes,  who  thus  show  that  they  have  lost 
sight  of  the  chief  purpose  of  the  suggestion  system  —  the 
recognition  of  individual  ability.  By  submitting  a  plan  to¬ 
gether,  they  have  practically  eliminated  the  personal  value 
which  their  suggestion  should  have  had,  and  each  signature 
neutralises  the  value  which  might  have  been  obtained  by  the 
one  signer.  This  result  is  manifestly  unfair  to  both  sug¬ 
gested,  for  several  reasons: 

( 1 )  Each  idea  must  have  originated  in  the  mind  of 
a  single  employe  and  should  be  submitted  by  that  person 
alone. 

(2)  The  practice  of  having  two  employes  sign  the  same 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


305 


suggestion  does  not  do  justice  to  the  originality  of  the  one  in 
whose  mind  the  idea  was  first  conceived. 

(3)  Moreover,  there  is  danger  of  giving  the  impression 
that  one  or  the  other  didn’t  know  how  to  put  the  idea  across 
alone,  or  else  that  he  is  the  type  of  man  who  is  unable  to 
carry  a  thing  through  by  himself  and  who  could  not  make 
good  in  a  more  important  position. 

(4)  This  does  not  promote  independence  of  thought,  which 
is  a  fundamental  requirement  for  any  person  who  expects 
eventually  to  obtain  a  position  of  responsibility. 

For  your  own  interest  it  is  therefore  very  important  that 
you  work  out  each  suggestion  alone,  so  that  it  will  represent 
your  own  efforts,  and  show  independent  thought.  When 
you  have  a  good  idea,  work  it  out  for  yourself  and  submit 
it  with  just  one  name  at  the  bottom ,  and  thus  “  Look  Out  for 
No.  1.” 

While  the  educational  value  of  such  a  system  as 
this  article  outlines  is  obvious,  the  financial  value  is 
probably  the  thing  which  has  the  most  effect  upon 
the  worker,  for  it  is  the  policy  of  scientific  manage¬ 
ment  to  accept  no  suggestions  without  giving  some 
kind  of  award. 

It  is  difficult  of  course  to  fix  this  award  justly.  I 
once  heard  a  safety  expert  of  a  great  plant  tell  of 
giving  $75  to  a  worker  for  a  suggestion  which  he 
said  was  saving  the  firm  $2,000  a  year.  The  man 
said  very  frankly,  “  The  man  himself,  a  foreigner 
who  could  speak  very  little  English,  was  highly 
gratified;  but  I  felt  as  if  I  were  robbing  him”; 
and  his  feeling  was  just.  So  far  as  I  know  the  most 
‘nearly  just  solution  of  this  difficult  problem  of 


3°6 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


awards  for  suggestions  has  been  reached  by  Mr. 
Babcock  of  the  Franklin  Manufacturing  Company  of 
Syracuse. 

It  is  quite  wonderful  to  see  a  shop  group  coming 
to  life  under  the  stimulus  of  these  various  undertak¬ 
ings.  Awaken  a  man  to  the  possibility  of  better 
health,  arouse  him  to  a  sense  of  his  part  in  safety 
work,  persuade  him  to  try  his  head  on  suggestions, 
and  the  chances  are  that  you  drive  him  out  of  the 
blind  alley  where  he  has  been  trapped  and  start  him 
on  an  open  and  upward  road.  He  feels  his  untouched 
power  and  often  unconsciously  uses  it.  The  problem 
of  finding  material  fit  and  willing  for  the  various 
places  of  responsibility  wThich  even  the  old-fashioned 
management  demands  has  grown  more  and  more 
difficult  in  these  later  years.  The  head  of  the  great 
Warner  Corset  Company  of  Bridgeport,  Connecticut, 
an  employer  of  some  seven  or  eight  thousand  people, 
says  that  while  ten  years  ago  they  filled  all  of  their 
advanced  shop  positions  and  frequently  those  of  the 
office  from  the  floor,  it  is  now  almost  always  neces¬ 
sary  to  go  outside  for  executive  and  clerical  help,  that 
is  the  rank  and  file  remain  rank  and  file.  The  river 
of  democracy  has  ceased  to  flow  freely  in  many  an 
industry.  Men  and  women  settle  in  the  brakish 
waters  of  caste.  The  lack  of  free  communication 
between  management  and  floor,  the  suspicion  and  dis¬ 
like  that  inevitably  comes  between  human  beings 
when  they  must  wTork  at  a  common  enterprise  without 
means  of  free  and  democratic  intercourse,  have  been 
largely  responsible  for  the  rise  of  our  industrial  caste 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


307 


system.  Out  of  very  loyalty  to  their  fellows  many 
men  and  women  unorganised  as  well  as  organised 
will  not  try  to  rise  to  positions  where  they  will  be 
“  over  ”  those  whom  they  have  been  “  with.”  It  is 
a  deplorable  attitude  in  any  group  and  where  it  exists 
the  thing  we  call  Democracy  is  impossible.  Democ¬ 
racy  demands  the  freest  intercourse  and  the  coming 
to  the  top  of  the  fittest. 

An  undertaking  which  arouses  a  general  interest 
and  sets  people  to  acting  together  unconsciously  is  a 
first  step  towards  breaking  up  the  caste  system  and 
releasing  aptitudes  and  talents.  Factory  games  and 
clubs  not  infrequently  bring  out  organising  and  execu¬ 
tive  ability  which  an  alert  manager  will  seize  upon. 
The  ability  to  lead  and  direct  has  been  largely  culti¬ 
vated  on  the  railroads  and  in  the  Steel  Corporation 
by  the  safety  organisation.  If  a  man  is  successful  as 
a  member  of  a  small  safety  committee  he  may  be 
successful  in  a  shop  position.  In  three  years  13,757 
different  men  in  the  Steel  Corporation  have  served  on 
committees.  No  one  can  tell  what  effect  the  experi¬ 
ence  may  have  on  these  men  It  would  be  strange  in¬ 
deed  if  a  per  cent,  of  them  did  not  seek  channels 
where  they  could  further  exercise  their  newly  discov¬ 
ered  powers.  That  is  the  way  Talent  in  men 
operates. 

The  tendency  of  all  these  undertakings  is  to  open 
and  to  encourage  workers  to  batter  down  the  blind 
alleys  which  trap  so  many.  This  is  particularly  true 
under  scientific  management.  Indeed  one  of  its  ob¬ 
jects  is  to  push  men  ahead.  It  must  do  that  if  it  is 


3°8 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


to  fill  the  new  positions  the  system  creates.  There 
must  be  men  to  do  the  planning  and  routing  of  work, 
something  formerly  left  largely  to  chance.  There 
must  be  others  to  take  care  of  and  distribute 
tools  and  supplies.  There  must  be  a  force  to 
study  the  tasks  and  instruct  operatives.  There 
must  be  foremen  and  assistants  for  each  of  the 
new  departments  created.  This  managing  force 
gives  the  time  to  find  out  how  work  can  be  best 
done  and  seeing  that  it  is  so  done.  Before  the 
introduction  of  scientific  management  in  the  Cloth- 
craft  Shop  of  Cleveland  there  were  13  persons  in  the 
management.  There  are  107  now.  With  four  or 
five  exceptions  these  107  people  have  been  taken  from 
hand  work  or  machine  work  positions  in  the  factory. 
In  the  case  of  the  four  or  five  it  was  necessary  to  go 
outside  in  order  to  get  some  special  equipment.  Gen¬ 
erally  speaking  they  believe  at  this  shop  that  hand 
and  machine  work  are  the  best  kind  of  preliminary 
training  for  people  who  have  the  capacity  to  fill  execu¬ 
tive  positions.  A  man  holds  three  positions  under 
this  system,  I  have  heard  experts  say:  the  one  he 
left  and  on  which  he  is  keeping  an  eye  to  see  that  his 
successor  is  working  properly,  the  one  he  fills,  the 
one  to  which  he  hopes  to  be  promoted.  There  are 
fewer  people  at  manual  labour  because  there  are 
more  at  mental  labour.  C.  Bertrand  Thompson,  an 
expert  who  has  had  much  experience  in  factory  re¬ 
organisation,  says  that  he  has  found  that  “  Labour¬ 
ers  may  easily  become  truckmen.  Truckmen  may  at 
a  pinch  attend  the  simpler  automatic  machines.  Ma- 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


309 


chine  tenders  are  easily  made  into  helpers,  and  help¬ 
ers  into  skilled  artisans.  The  class  of  foremen  and 
clerks  is  almost  invariably  recruited  in  scientific  man¬ 
agement  plants  from  the  better  men  in  the  lower 
grades  of  labour.” 

The  amount  of  new  work  created  by  the  system 
does  not  by  any  means  rest  here.  The  improved 
man  requires  an  improved  tool,  an  improved  chair. 
From  every  side  the  incentive  to  develop  new  things 
comes.  When  Mr.  Taylor  proved  that  it  paid  to 
give  each  shoveller  in  his  gang  a  shovel  fitted  in 
weight  and  length  of  handle  to  the  man’s  reach  and 
strength,  he  gave  an  enormous  stimulus  to  the  shovel 
business,  that  is,  set  more  men  at  work  making 
shovels.  There  has  never  been  a  shop  put  under 
the  system  that  streams  of  new  and  unexpected  de¬ 
mands  did  not  flow  from  it. 

There  are  those  who  claim  that  all  the  advantages 
that  scientific  management  of  an  industry  may  bring 
to  workers  it  is  in  the  long  run  an  injury  because  they 
turn  out  so  much  more,  they  are  bound  to  exhaust  the 
demand  and  put  themselves  out  of  work.  This  is 
one  of  labour’s  chief  objections  to  the  system.  It  is 
the  fear  of  abundance;  a  fear  that  labour  has  caught 
from  capital,  and  which  has  set  them  both  at  the 
most  pernicious  economic  practise  men  ever  devised 
—  that  of  keeping  things  scarce  that  their  price  might 
be  high.  Labour  has  learned  from  capital  to  fear 
what  it  calls  “  too  much.” 

To  capital  abundance  means  cheapness  and  com¬ 
monness;  to  the  workman,  a  shut-down;  so  the  capi- 


310 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


talistic  fruit  grower  dumps  his  apples  into  the  river 
if  he  sees  the  market  so  stocked  that  plenty  of  apples 
may  be  within  the  reach  of  the  thousands.  The 
commission  merchant  puts  his  eggs  into  cold  storage 
for  higher  prices  —  and  the  tenements  go  without 
eggs.  The  oil  trust,  the  beef  trust  —  all  our 
monopolistic  friends  hate  and  fear  abundance. 
They  agree  with  the  high  tariff  senator  of  a  Western 
State  who  once  told  the  United  States  Senate  that 
he  hoped  to  see  the  day  when  the  wheat  crop  would 
always  be  a  little  shorter  than  the  demand,  that  the 
farmer  might  always  get  a  high  price  —  and  the  poor 
man  a  small  loaf,  he  should  have  been  told. 

The  w7orkingman  has  held  the  same  notion.  He 
keeps  his  daily  output  down  insisting  on  an  average 
wage  for  all,  and  in  doing  this  he  honestly  believes 
he  serves  himself  and  his  fellows. 

What  he  is  learning  from  scientific  management  is 
that  work  breeds  work ,  that  the  more  that  is  done  the 
more  there  is  to  do,  that  is,  these  new  methods  of 
managing  plants  are  educating  the  workingman  as 
well  as  the  employers  in  sounder  economic  notions. 
They  are  seeing  more  and  more  clearly  that  in  cur¬ 
tailing  work  they  are  curtailing  the  power  of  con¬ 
sumption.  The  more  work  men  do,  the  more  they 
have  to  spend;  and  the  more  they  have  to  spend,  the 
greater  is  the  demand  for  the  things  all  men  make. 

The  training  in  co-operation  which  these  new  fac¬ 
tory  methods  gives  must  I  think  be  counted  as  one 
of  their  finest  educational  contributions.  Genuine 
co-operation  has  always  been  difficult  for  men  and 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL  311 

women.  Their  ignorance,  stubbornness,  pride, 
greed,  suspicion,  hamper  it.  Everything  in  which  a 
group  succeeds  in  acting  collectively  strengthens  the 
desire  for  and  points  the  way  to  co-operation.  The 
safety  crusade  is  a  big  co-operative  enterprise,  so  is 
the  national  handling  of  the  unemployed,  so  is  the 
fight  for  national  health.  They  are  allies  of  the 
higher  peaceful  unionism  of  which  every  intelligent 
workman  with  any  vision  of  the  future  dreams. 
Nevertheless,  none  of  these  undertakings  get  very 
hearty  support  from  organised  labour.  They  seem 
to  feel  that  betterment  which  come  from  free  co¬ 
operation  of  employer  with  employes  are  less  per¬ 
manent  and  less  just  than  those  which  come  from  col¬ 
lective'  bargaining  through  the  unions.  Also  they 
fear  that  they  are  as  genuine  as  they  often  are,  mainly 
because  the  employer  thinks  he  can  in  this  way  keep 
unionism  out  of  his  shop.  If  he  gives  all  and  more 
of  the  benefits  which  the  union  exists  to  secure,  the 
worker  feeling  no  need  will  not  seek  the  union  pro¬ 
tection.  My  own  observation  has  been  that  it  is 
efficiency  and  stability  chiefly  if  not  entirely  that  the 
employer  seeks  when  he  undertakes  to  put  his  shop 
on  a  modern  basis.  He  often  gives  shorter  hours 
than  the  union  demands  because  he  finds  by  experi¬ 
ment  that  they  are  better  for  the  health  and  therefore 
for  the  productivity  of  the  worker.  He  works  out 
a  wage  scale  which  is  higher  than  that  of  the  union 
because  by  so  doing  he  stimulates  the  worker.  He 
goes  to  great  pains  to  improve  conditions  because 
he  has  found  that  healthy  happy  growing  men  and 


312 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


women  are  better  workers.  He  interests  these  men 
and  women  in  the  industry  and  often  he  helps  them  to 
become  stock-holders,  because  he  has  discovered  it 
is  better  for  the  business  that  he  should  do  so.  He 
constantly  stimulates  their  ambition  teaching  them 
how  to  increase  their  skill,  and  so  their  earnings, 
opening  new  positions  to  them  and  helping  them  to 
fit  themselves  to  fill  them;  and  to  do  these  things  he 
must  secure  the  fullest  co-operation  of  the  employe. 

There  is  an  important  point  involved  here  which 
union  men  should  not  shirk.  Any  system  or  practice 
which  depends  upon  a  high  degree  of  co-operation 
for  success  is  the  ally  of  intelligent  unionism  —  not, 
perhaps,  of  that  unionism  which  is  concerned  with 
politics,  which  is  opportunism  in  spirit  and  military 
in  method,  but  with  the  unionism  of  the  great  mass 
of  workers  who  believe  in  sound  practices,  peaceful 
progress  and,  if  possible,  friendly  relations  with  all 
those  concerned  in  their  industry.  The  head  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labour,  Mr.  Samuel  Gom- 
pers,  made  a  wise  comment  recently  on  the  or¬ 
ganisation  of  labour  that  has  been  worked  out  in  the 
Colorado  Fuel  and  Iron  Company.  That  organisa¬ 
tion  was  formed  unquestionably  to  head  off  unionism, 
though  it  is  proposed  by  its  aid  to  improve  conditions 
in  the  company,  and  to  right  some  old  and  terrible 
wrongs.  Mr.  Gompers  could  not  be  expected  to  be 
friendly  to  such  an  undertaking,  yet  he  is  wise  enough 
to  see  and  just  enough  to  say  that  in  the  long  run  this 
organisation  must  help  rather  than  hinder  union¬ 


ism. 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


3!3 


“  The  miners  employed  by  the  Colorado  Fuel  and 
Iron  Company,”  says  Mr.  Gompers,  “  have  been 
whipped  by  means  of  atrocious  brutality  and  hunger 
into  submission,  back  to  the  mines.  And  these  min¬ 
ers  have  been  formed  into  a  union  by  Mr.  Rocke¬ 
feller’s  benevolent  altruism.  But  he  has  organised 
them,  and  for  that  at  any  rate  labour  is  truly  grate¬ 
ful,  for  when  men  come  together  to  discuss,  even  in 
the  most  cursory  way,  their  rights  and  their  interests 
and  welfare,  there  is  afforded  a  splendid  field  for 
development  and  opportunity.” 

Nothing  can  be  truer.  The  day  must  come  it 
seems  to  me,  when  organised  labour  will  look  on  sci¬ 
entific  management  as  one  of  its  strongest  allies,  be¬ 
cause  it  is  a  system  which  depends  first  and  last  upon 
co-operative  action.  The  first  time  I  visited  a  shop 
under  the  system  I  was  bewildered  by  an  impression 
which  I  could  only  describe  as  free  circulation.  The 
workers,  from  the  head  man  in  the  head  office  to  the 
last  man  in  the  yard,  seemed  to  be  moving  in  the  same 
current,  striking  on  the  same  key.  I  saw  what  I 
never  had  seen  before,  workingmen  in  blue  overalls 
and  smutty  faces  boldly  walking  into  the  offices  to 
consult  with  the  men  who  had  made  their  blue  prints, 
worked  out  their  instructions  and  set  their  task  and 
bonus.  I  saw  men  in  smart  business  suits  going 
about  in  the  shop,  and  no  more  attention  given  them 
than  if  they  wore  the  shop  regalia.  Every  one 
seemed  in  consultation.  As  I  learned  more  of  the 
system  I  discovered  that  this  was  literally  true.  The 
plan  takes  in  everybody.  It  depends  on  taking  in 


3H 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


everybody.  It  will  not  work  properly  if  any  one 
holds  back. 

To  educate  a  force  of  500,  800,  1,000  men  and 
women  to  this  idea  and  to  its  realisation,  is  slow  and 
sometimes  painful.  It  can  be  done  only  by  repeated 
experiment  and  explanation.  As  fine  an  educational 
enterprise  as  now  exists  for  workingmen  is  the  weekly 
open-shop  meeting  that  many  efficiency  engineers 
carry  on  when  they  are  converting  a  shop.  I  have 
rarely  been  more  interested  than  in  one  of  these 
meetings  I  attended  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island. 
There  were  men  from  the  foundry,  the  machine  shop, 
and  the  office  present.  The  engineer  was  there,  and 
so  was  the  president  of  the  company.  For  two  hours 
they  discussed  the  new  system  in  the  most  independent 
way.  The  day  following  I  asked  a  man  in  the  shop 
whom  I  had  seen  there  what  he  thought  of  it  all.  “  I 
don't  understand  it  very  well, —  none  of  the  boys 
do,  and  we  think  we  ought  to  watch  it  and  we  are, — 
but  I  think  it’s  the  real  thing.” 

“Why?”  I  asked. 

“  Well,”  he  said,  “  these  are  the  only  shop  meet¬ 
ings  I  ever  heard  of  where  the  man  at  the  bench  and 
the  president  of  the  company  have  the  same  kind  of 
chair  to  sit  on  and  the  same  kind  of  cigar  to  smoke.” 

Those  who  believe  that  scientific  management 
holds  benefits  particularly  for  the  working  class  are 
those  upon  whom  the  burden  of  proof  is  thrown. 
They  are  the  educated,  the  leaders,  the  superior  by 
training  and  opportunity.  They  cannot  be  too  pa- 


THE  FACTORY  AS  A  SCHOOL 


VS 

tient,  too  reasonable,  too  willing  to  dis'cuss  even  those 
things  they  know  are  facts  and  as  little  to  be  in¬ 
fluenced  by  discussion  as  the  multiplication  table.  If 
we  had  never  heard  of  the  multiplication  table  until 
now  we  certainly  would  have  to  spend  much  time 
in  proving  it.  The  leaders  in  this  movement  are 
seeing  this,  and  many  of  them  are  devoting  time  and 
strength  to  explanation  which  must  seem  like  ex¬ 
plaining  the  rules  of  arithmetic. 

One  of  the  most  sportsmanlike  exhibits  the  coun¬ 
try  ever  saw  was  Mr.  Taylor’s  willingness  to  sub¬ 
ject  himself  to  the  heckling  and  the  badgering  of 
labour  leaders,  congressmen,  and  investigators  of  all 
degrees  of  misunderstanding,  suspicion  and  ill  will. 
To  a  man  of  his  temperament  and  highly  trained  in¬ 
tellect,  who  had  given  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  the 
hardest  kind  of  toil  to  develop  useful  truths,  the  kind 
of  questioning  to  which  he  was  sometimes  subjected 
must  have  been  maddening.  But  although  he  often 
used  strong  language  he  never  gave  up,  and  he  con¬ 
tinually  learned. 

There  are  not  a  few  of  his  younger  followers 
who  on  this  point  of  the  relations  of  unionism  to 
scientific  management  are  sensible  and  liberal.  They 
see  the  difficulty,  but  they  believe  that  by  experiment 
and  good  will  it  can  be  adjusted. 

But  to  adjust  requires,  as  do  all  of  these  under¬ 
takings,  an  entirely  new  attitude  of  mind  toward 
labour  and  its  problems.  All  over  the  country  this 
attitude  of  mind  is  forming  and  expanding.  We 


3!6 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


have  a  new  kind  of  leadership  in  industry,  a  new 
executive  whose  point  of  view,  method  and  ambition 
are  diametrically  opposed  to  those  of  our  old  execu¬ 
tive,  and  it  is  upon  him  the  immediate  future  of  in¬ 
dustry  in  this  country  depends. 


CHAPTER  XII 


OUR  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  LEADER 

The  code,  the  theory  and  the  attitude  of  mind  of 
the  employer  who  brings  any  one  or  all  of  these  un¬ 
dertakings  to  the  paying  point;  that  is,  makes  them 
work  so  well  that  he  considers  them  indispensable,  in 
managing  his  business,  is  in  sharpest  contrast  to  the 
code,  the  theory  and  the  attitude  of  mind  of  the  old- 
school  employer. 

We  know  fairly  well  what  this  type  preaches  and 
practises.  His  concern  is  with  the  machinery  of 
business,  not  with  the  human  beings  who  operate 
that  machinery.  They  must  look  out  for  them¬ 
selves.  If  they  contract  occupational  diseases,  it  is 
their  lookout.  If  they  are  hurt,  it  is  also  their  look¬ 
out.  If  the  hours  are  long  and  the  wages  low  they 
are  free  to  leave.  If  they  put  in  suggestions  which 
help  the  business  but  not  them  that  is  their  bad  luck. 
Briefly  his  creed  is  “  Humanity  has  nothing  to  do 
with  business.” 

The  employer  of  the  new  school  disputes  every 
point  of  the  old  creed.  Wherever  you  find  this 
new  executive  you  find  him  enormously  interested 
in  the  human  material.  He  believes  it  is  all 
capable  of  some  use  and  that  is  his  responsibility 
to  use  it.  He  does  not  even  despise  the  sub- 

317 


3i8 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


normal,  indeed  there  is  nothing  which  better  em¬ 
phasises  the  attitude  of  mind  of  the  new  execu¬ 
tive  than  the  trouble  he  is  willing  to  take  with  this 
class.  He  has  proved  again  and  again  under  scien¬ 
tific  management  that  those  who  are  “  not  all  there  ” 
can  do  certain  kinds  of  work  more  efficiently  than  it 
is  done  by  the  “  bright.”  They  will  not  go  ahead, 
but  they  will  be  happy  and  useful  in  the  operation 
which  fits  them.  Whatever  the  quality  of  the  hu¬ 
man  material  he  deals  with  he  endeavours  to  dis¬ 
cover  what  it  can  do  best.  In  this  delicate  task  he  no 
more  despises  anything  which  promises  to  help  him 
than  he  despises  any  possible  drink-cure. 

What  he  asks  is,  “  Are  there  other  ways  of  find¬ 
ing  out  what  a  man  is  fitted  for  than  the  old  way  of 
setting  him  at  a  task  and  seeing  what  happens?  Are 
there  other  ways  of  spotting  an  engineer,  an  execu¬ 
tive,  an  artist,  than  trying  the  man  at  trade  or  art? 
He  has  his  own  ways  of  judging  men  —  born  of  ex¬ 
perience,  observation  and  reflection.  Are  there  tests 
which  will  automatically  settle  the  matter  and  re¬ 
lieve  him  of  his  errors  or  even  reduce  the  percentage 
of  his  errors?  He  has  opened  his  mind  to  proof, 
and  the  phrenologist  and  psychologists  are  busily 
trying  to  convince  him.  I  have  seen  labour  forces 
replenished  solely  on  the  height  and  depth  of  the 
forehead,  the  colour  of  the  eye,  the  shape  of  the 
nose,  the  curve  of  the  chin;  and  I  have  never  heard 
more  enthusiastic  and  confident  claims  than  from  the 
advocates  of  the  system.  What  is  there  in  it? 

We  have  an  authoritative  answer  from  one  of  the 


OUR  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  LEADER 


319 


most  trustworthy  sources  in  the  country  —  Dean 
Schneider  of  the  College  of  Engineering  of  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Cincinnati.  Co-operation  between  college 
and  shops  in  the  education  of  young  men  has  been 
carried  on  in  Cincinnati  for  several  years  under  Dean 
Schneider’s  direction.  It  has  been,  of  course,  a  nice 
problem  to  select  men  for  different  kinds  of  work. 
Was  any  help  to  be  obtained  from  those  who  claim 
that  aptitude  and  ability  are  shown  in  physical  char¬ 
acteristics?  These  claims  were  put  to  the  test  by  the 
faculty  interested.  For  instance,  it  is  declared  that 
a  certain  shaped  head  means  a  directive  money-mak¬ 
ing  executive.  I  once  knew  an  employer  to  haul 
from  a  group  of  entirely  uneducated  applicants  a 
man  with  this  particular  shaped  head  and  make  a 
place  in  his  counting  room  for  him.  A  great  execu¬ 
tive  should  not  be  lost  to  his  business,  he  said. 

Mr.  Schneider  picked  out  at  random  a  number  of 
well-known  money-making  executives,  and  had  their 
physical  characteristics  charted.  He  found  they  did 
not  conform  to  any  law.  After  full  tests  of  the 
methods  and  principles  of  this  school,  he  says: 

“  We  were  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  this  sys¬ 
tem  was  not  reliable.” 

Are  the  claims  of  the  psychologists  any  more  re¬ 
liable?  Can  they,  as  a  few  have  claimed,  decide  in 
a  laboratory  what  a  man  is  and  is  not  good  for  ?  Do 
their  tests  prove  your  normality,  your  ability,  your 
character?  Dean  Schneider  and  his  colleagues  have 
been  testing  those  claims.  Selecting  men  from  two 
classes  of  graduates  —  men  who  had  been  with  them 


320 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


five  years,  and  whose  work  since  leaving  college  they 
had  followed  so  that  they  felt  they  knew  something 
of  their  abilities.  They  had  them  tested  in  the  psy¬ 
chological  laboratory.  In  no  case  did  the  psycholo¬ 
gists  find  the  young  men  to  have  the  abilities  which 
they  had  proved  themselves  to  have.  I  do  not  un¬ 
derstand  Dean  Schneider  to  conclude  from  these 
tests  that  psychology  can  give  no  aid  at  all  in  deter¬ 
mining  characteristics,  only  that  the  proposition  has 
not  yet  been  proved. 

In  opposition  to  this  experience  is  one  of  the  Cloth- 
craft  Shop  of  Cleveland  where  it  was  found  that  the 
estimates  from  applying  the  tests  to  a  group  of  its 
executives  and  skilled  employes  were  almost  exactly 
those  that  had  been  formed  in  the  shop  after  long 
experience. 

Probably  the  wisest  conclusion  in  regard  to  psy¬ 
chological  tests  is  that  while  they  may  be  suggestive, 
they  are  not  final,  and  that  either  to  reject  or  accept 
a  man  on  their  showing  is  almost  as  foolish  as  reject¬ 
ing  or  accepting  him  on  the  shape  of  his  head. 
They  may  show  with  fair  accuracy  what  a  man  can¬ 
not  do,  but  they  do  not  give  a  clue  to  much  that  he 
might  learn  to  do.  The  human  being  is  too  wonder¬ 
ful  a  creation,  he  has  too  many  possibilities  hidden 
from  himself  and  all  men  to  reveal  his  powers  at  one 
or  many  sittings  to  the  cleverest  devices  of  any  psy¬ 
chological  wizard. 

Our  new  leader  not  only  tries  to  digest  the  sub¬ 
normal,  he  often  makes  a  brave  and  patient  attempt 
to  assimilate  the  criminal.  Out  in  Kansas  they  have 


OUR  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  LEADER 


321 


founded  an  association  called  the  Humanitarians, 
which  proposes  to  back  up  the  discharged  prisoner 
in  all  his  efforts  to  be  self-supporting  and  decent. 
They  are  seeking  the  co-operation  of  employers. 
They  find  that  it  is  not  only  Henry  Ford  who  believes 
in  the  power  of  a  human  being  to  “  come  back  ”  and 
is  willing  to  give  him  a  hand.  One  of  the  officials  of 
the  Humanitarians  writes  me  that  while  they  have 
found  many  employers  of  labour  sceptical  in  the  ex¬ 
treme  concerning  the  business  policy  of  opening  the 
doors  of  their  factories  to  prison  graduates,  their  ob¬ 
jections  are  founded  on  sound  principles  and  not  be¬ 
cause  of  inherent  distrust  of  the  men. 

Some  contend  that  the  man  with  prison  training  is 
unfitted  for  efficient  work;  that  he  has  acquired 
the  tendency  to  slight  his  task  while  in  prison,  and 
that  he  will  continue  to  do  the  least  possible  amount 
of  labour  when  released.  In  a  way  they  are  right, 
and  that  fact  is  a  discredit  to  the  prison  systems  now 
in  vogue. 

Others  take  a  broader  view  of  the  matter.  The 
Humanitarians  have  placed  men  with  the  Sante  Fe 
Railway  Company,  the  Chalmers  Motor  Company, 
the  Peet  Brothers  Soap  Company,  The  “  ioi  ” 
Ranch  Corporation,  and  dozens  of  smaller  concerns. 
Those  men  have  made  good  and  are  making  good. 

In  connection  with  the  work  they  are  attempting 
to  further  the  educational  advantages  of  the  prison 
body.  Several  technical  schools  have  been  ap¬ 
proached.  Some  have  offered  assistance,  others 
have  agreed  to  take  the  matter  up  with  the  faculty, 


322 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


and  only  one,  the  I.  T.  U.  School  has  refused  co¬ 
operation.  That  particular  school  is  under  the  man¬ 
agement  of  the  International  Typographical  Union 
and  at  their  recent  convention  they  refused  to  con¬ 
sider  the  request  favourably.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  this  refusal  should  have  disturbed  the  Humani¬ 
tarians.  Every  man  they  have  in  the  print-shop  of 
the  Lansing  Prison,  the  headquarters  of  the  Associa¬ 
tion,  happens  to  have  been  a  member  of  that  union 
at  one  time  or  another. 

The  same  interest  and  faith  in  human  material 
which  is  back  of  this  willingness  to  use  it  even  if  it  is 
of  low  calibre  or  warped  by  crime  is  back  of  the 
determination  that  one  finds  in  all  employers  of  the 
new  school  to  break  down  the  suspicion  and  ill  will 
writh  which  the  average  American  workman  and  em¬ 
ployer  regard  one  another.  This  distrust  is  so 
strong  at  times  that  the  observer  feels  as  if  actually 
handling  it.  Nothing  that  the  employer  tries  in  the 
way  of  betterment  is  kindly  received.  No  undertak¬ 
ing  of  the  men  is  treated  frankly  and  naturally  by 
the  employer.  They  are  unfriendly  classes,  intent 
on  wresting  from  one  another  all  they  can,  because 
they  no  longer  see  themselves  as  anything  but  ene¬ 
mies.  The  breaking  down  of  this  ugly  and  undemo¬ 
cratic  class  spirit  in  American  industry  and  the  re¬ 
placing  it  by  one  of  friendly  and  democratic  co¬ 
operation  is  possibly  the  hardest  of  all  the  many 
objects  of  the  new  school.  It  requires  time,  it  re¬ 
quires  much  experiment.  It  cannot  be  accomplished 


OUR  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  LEADER  323 

in  the  same  way  in  any  two  places  for  the  sufficient 
reason  that  in  no  two  places  are  the  conditions,  the 
needs  and  the  desires  identical.  Each  factory  is  a 
separate  problem. 

The  first  need  of  the  employer  is  to  awaken  inter¬ 
est  and  faith  in  his  particular  effort.  He  will  never 
do  this  unless  he  himself  believes  that  the  thing  is 
just  and  at  the  same  time  a  part  of  sound  manage¬ 
ment.  It  is  idle  for  an  employer  to  think  that  he  can 
win  labour  by  welfare  machinery,  by  high  wages,  by 
profit  sharing;  unless  his  reasons  for  attempting  these 
things  are  something  more  than  selfish  interest,  they 
won’t  work.  No  one  is  quicker  to  detect  the  intent 
and  spirit  behind  a  new  practice  than  a  body  of  work¬ 
ers.  They  know  the  scent  of  reality.  A  good  thing 
undertaken  for  a  mean  purpose  or  undertaken  half¬ 
heartedly  and  because  some  competitor  succeeds  with 
it  is  almost  surely  sterile.  True,  in  doing  the  thing, 
a  man  may  come  to  appreciate  the  meaning  of  his 
undertaking,  may  himself  be  converted,  but  unless 
this  happens,  his  plan  will  fail. 

I  have  seen  a  makeshift  of  a  lunch-room  set  up  in 
the  middle  of  a  factory  floor,  a  recreation-room  for 
which  space  was  stolen  by  piling  goods  higher,  a  first- 
aid  room,  made  by  partitioning  the  end  of  a  hall,  all 
used  joyfully  and  to  their  full  capacity  by  girls  who 
said  and  meant  it:  “  Gee,  but  this  is  a  fine  place  to 
work!  ”  And  I’ve  seen  the  most  aproved  form  of 
cafeteria,  an  attractively  furnished  club-room  and  a 
modern  hospital  go  practically  unused. 


324 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


“  Raise  our  wages,  cut  down  the  hours,  and  carry 
off  the  dust.  That’s  what  we  want,”  the  workers 
tell  you  —  and  they  are  right. 

The  new  employer  must  base  his  undertakings  on 
faith  in  the  power  of  men  of  different  grades  of  abil¬ 
ity  and  of  education  to  work  together  happily  and 
justly.  He  must  believe  that  good  will  is  as  possible 
in  such  a  group  as  ill-will,  that  trust  is  as  practical  as 
suspicion,  that  whether  you  have  the  one  or  the  other 
depends  on  management.  That  is,  the  new  em¬ 
ployer  is  candidly  and  gamely  taking  on  his  own 
shoulders  the  responsibility  for  the  deplorable  class 
spirit  which  exists  to-day  in  our  industrial  life.  The 
tendency  of  all  the  activities  described  in  the  previous 
chapter  is  to  confidence  and  equality,  for  the  reason 
repeatedly  pointed  out  that  each  of  them  requires  the 
co-operation  of  the  whole  force.  This  co-operation 
is  sometimes  quickened  by  shop  organisations  de¬ 
voted  to  that  particular  end.  For  a  number  of  years 
now  the  Pilgrim  Laundry  has  conducted  floor  meet¬ 
ings  at  which  the  management  has  explained  changes 
in  methods,  put  questions  as  to  policy,  listened  to 
criticisms,  and  often  taken  votes.  The  admirable 
German-American  Button  Company  of  Rochester, 
New  York,  is  so  organised  that  anything  and  every¬ 
thing  concerning  the  operation  and  the  management 
of  the  factory  can  be  fully  discussed  with  heads  of 
departments  and  officers.  Department  meetings  are 
frequent  and  the  Progress  Club,  a  factory  organisa¬ 
tion  in  which  all  employes  as  well  as  the  management 
are  represented,  takes  up  problems  as  they  present 


OUR  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  LEADER  325 


themselves.  For  example,  this  factory  has  been 
working  towards  a  more  satisfactory  classification  of 
operations,  grading  them  according  to  their  diffi¬ 
culty.  Wages  are  fitted  as  nearly  as  possible  to  the 
grade  of  work.  When  these  changes  in  wages  are 
made  they  are  fully  discussed  at  department  meet¬ 
ings.  The  operative  learns  the  theory  on  which  his 
wages  are  being  adjusted,  and  has  an  opportunity  to 
express  his  opinion.  The  factory  has  been  steadily 
decreasing  its  hours,  as  it  developed  a  more  scien¬ 
tific  management.  These  changes,  the  rest  periods 
fixed,  the  relation  of  pay  and  hours  are  all  matters 
which  the  departments  and  the  Progress  Club  thresh 
over.  It  is  out  of  the  question  for  a  factory  force 
so  organised  to  harbour  ill-will  and  suspicion.  It 
has  a  free  vent  for  its  discontent  and  its  ambitions. 
It  is  taken  in.  It  knows  that  there  is  a  steady  effort 
to  improve  not  merely  the  profits  of  owners,  but 
its  profits  and  opportunity.  The  organisation  works 
towards  a  real,  not  a  fictitious,  democracy.  It  is  the 
enemy  of  hostility. 

An  organisation  modelled  after  the  Progress  Club 
of  the  German-American  Button  Company  is  the 
Quality  Club  of  the  Hickey-Freeman  Company  of 
Rochester.  This  Quality  Club  is  made  up  of  the  of¬ 
ficers  and  directors  of  the  firm,  the  heads  of  depart¬ 
ments  and  an  elected  representative  of  every  fifty 
employes.  This  membership  elects  officers  and  ap¬ 
points  committees.  A  list  of  the  committees  will 
giv-e  a  fair  idea  of  the  range  of  the  club’s  interest  — 
the  kind  of  look-in  on  the  business  which  it  gives. 


326 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


There  are  committees  on  “  Quality  of  Merchandise,” 
“  Service  to  Customers,”  “  Efficiency,”  “  Quality,” 
“Traffic,”  “Safety,”  and  “Activities.”  I  once  at¬ 
tended  a  meeting  of  the  Quality  Club  at  which  all  of 
these  various  committees  reported.  It  was  one  of 
the  most  informing  and  stimulating  shop  gatherings 
that  I  have  ever  seen.  The  reports  were  frank,  as 
was  the  discussion.  I  learned  at  the  gathering  more 
about  the  clothing  business  than  I  had  gathered  in 
repeated  visits  to  other  factories.  There  was  no 
glossing  over  of  inefficiency.  The  sharpness  of  ob¬ 
servation,  the  evidence  that  the  floor  through  its  rep¬ 
resentatives  was  taking  note  of  its  surroundings  and 
demanding  what  it  thought  it  ought  to  have  was 
abundant;  for  instance,  the  Safety  Committee  re¬ 
ported  17  different  sensible  recommendations  as  hav¬ 
ing  been  put  into  effect  since  the  last  meeting,  and  15 
different  sensible  suggestions  were  made  in  the  dis¬ 
cussion  of  the  report  of  the  committee,  things  that 
obviously  needed  attention  in  the  factory,  and  of 
which  the  management  would  probably  not  have 
known  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  co-operation  in  its 
safety  work  that  it  was  getting  from  the  rank  and 
file. 

There  was  the  liveliest  interest  taken  in  the  activi¬ 
ties  which  the  committee  was  planning  for  the 
health  and  pleasure  of  the  employes.  One  came 
away  from  the  meeting  of  the  Club  with  an  impres¬ 
sion  that  there  wras  a  body  that  was  intelligently 
striving  to  get  itself  onto  a  basis  of  friendly  under¬ 
standing. 


OUR  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  LEADER 


327 


Where  such  clubs  as  the  two  mentioned  above  are 
conducted  for  any  length  of  time,  I  cannot  but  be¬ 
lieve  that  a  spirit  and  attitude  of  mind  will  be  es¬ 
tablished  in  the  group  which  will  make  it  possible  for 
every  employer  and  employe  to  take  up  together 
even  the  questions  that  gather  about  Unionism,  its 
aims  and  pretensions,  questions  that  now  are  ig¬ 
nored  pretty  generally.  Unionism  as  one  of  the  la¬ 
bourer’s  rights  will  be  freely  considered,  just  as  the 
association  of  the  manufacturers  in  a  particular  line 
and  the  relation  of  that  association  to  the  employe 
might  very  properly  be  discussed. 

What  it  all  amounts  to  is  that  a  way  is  being  found 
by  which  all  of  the  workers  concerned  in  a  factory 
shall  be  able  to  meet  and  to-  consider  anything  and 
everything  which  even  remotely  affects  them.  Of 
course  nothing  less  than  this  should  be  the  aim  of 
every  industrial  group  if  we  are  to  have  anything 
like  an  industrial  democracy  in  the  country. 

There  is  no  more  striking  contrast  between  the  old 
and  the  new  schools-  of  management  than  the  way 
each  looks  at  his  task  of  management.  The  one 
sneers  at  the  idea  that  management  can  be  reduced 
to  anything  like  a  science.  It  cultivates  rule-of- 
thumb  methods,  resents  criticism,  denies  that  it  has 
any  responsibility  towards  employes  other  than  that 
of  paying  the  wages  agreed  upon.  It  is  suspicious 
of  its  competitors,  looks  on  government  regulation 
as  an  interference  with  its  personal  rights,  denies  that 
a  private  business  can  have  obligations  to  the  public; 
that  is,  generally  speaking,  this  old  school  manage- 


328 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


ment  is  narrow,  suspicious  and  obstinate.  The  new 
school  is  none  of  these  things.  It  believes  that  man¬ 
agement  can  be  developed  to  a  science,  and  it  gives 
itself  whole-heartedly  to  this  development.  It  is  an 
eager  learner,  a  tireless  experimenter.  It  invites 
criticism.  Instead  of  suspecting  its  opponents,  it  in¬ 
vites  exchange  of  ideas  and  views  with  them.  Trade 
secrets  it  regards  as  bugaboos,  and  declares  that  busi¬ 
ness  succeeds  by  freely  tapping  all  sources  of  infor¬ 
mation.  It  is  absolutely  opposed  to  monopoly  of 
ideas. 

This  attitude  towards  management  has  resulted  in 
several  interesting  organisations  for  furthering  the 
discussion  and  the  exchange  of  experiences.  The 
first  of  these  societies  was  formed  in  1912  in  New 
York,  and  is  known  as  the  “Efficiency  Society.” 
Quite  unexpectedly  to  its  founders,  demands  for 
membership  came  from  all  over  the  country.  They 
came  from  all  sorts  of  people  directly  and  indirectly 
interested  in  business.  The  Efficiency  Society  has 
been  followed  in  various  parts  of  the  country  by  simi¬ 
lar  organisations.  Its  most  important  national  suc¬ 
cessor  has  been  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  the 
Science  of  Management  formed  by  the  Taylor  group. 

The  most  significant  and  promising  recent  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  idea  is  local,  The  Executives  Club,  of  De¬ 
troit,  Michigan.  This  organisation,  now  a  little  over 
two  years  old,  is  made  up  of  Detroit  plants.  The 
managers  of  these  plants  meet  regularly  to  discuss 
all  sorts  of  shop  problems  and  to  exchange  their  ex¬ 
periences.  It  is  a  kind  of  industrial  clearing  house 


OUR  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  LEADER 


329 


for  comparing  and  studying  whatever  the  various 
Detroit  managers  are  doing.  They  spend  much 
time  on  the  theory  and  the  practice  of  scientific  man¬ 
agement.  They  discuss  the  use  of  the  stop-watch, 
the  type  of  operator  on  whom  it  is  best  to  make  time 
studies,  the  question  of  fatigue  and  how  it  is  to  be 
met,  the  standardisation  of  all  kinds  of  operations, 
the  various  systems  of  wage  payments,  cost  systems, 
all  of  the  problems  involved  in  changing  their  plants 
from  the  old  time  military  rule  to  the  new  function¬ 
alised  rule. 

The  Club  has  an  admirable  paid  secretary,  Mr. 
Boyd  Fisher,  and  under  his  direction  it  gathers  in¬ 
formation  on  industrial  problems.  One  of  the  com- 
pletest  recent  studies  of  Profit  Sharing  has  been  made 
by  Mr.  Fisher  for  the  Executives  Club.  When 
complicated  labour  situations  arise,  in  different 
parts  of  the  county  the  Club  tries  to  get  down 
to  the  causes  and  to  learn  from  the  experiences 
that  others  are  having  how  to  avoid  irritation  and 
suspicion.  Its  meetings  fairly  boil  with  interest 
and  suggestiveness.  The  Club  has  never  made 
any  report  on  the  practical  results  of  its  dis¬ 
cussions  and  interchange  of  ideas  and  experiences, 
but  it  does  claim  that  these  have  been  considerable. 
They  must  have  been,  for  nothing  else  would  have 
kept  together  a  group  of  men  on  whom  the  business 
pressure  is  as  perpetual  and  as  strong  as  upon  these 
Detroit  executives.  Things  do  leak  out,  however, 
to  show  the  effect  of  the  organisations.  Ten  plants 
are  said  to  have  established  employment  departments 


330 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


since  they  came  into  the  club,  22  to  have  appointed 
welfare  managers.  There  have  been  all  sorts  of 
changes  in  the  organisations,  all  of  them  towards  a 
higher  degree  of  standardisation.  Considerable 
savings  have  been  reported  through  ideas  picked  up 
at  the  meetings.  The  interest  and  belief  in  profit 
sharing  has  spread,  and  at  least  two  plants  are  adopt¬ 
ing  systems.  Probably  the  great  work  of  this  Ex¬ 
ecutive  Club  is  its  constant  demonstration  of  the 
value  of  full  and  free  co-operation  and  exchange. 

An  interesting  proof  of  the  spread  of  the  convic¬ 
tion  that  co-operation  between  plants  is  a  healthy  and 
profitable  thing  lies  in  the  interest  which  managers 
in  many  other  parts  of  the  country  have  shown  in  the 
Detroit  undertaking.  Wide-awake  managers  of  the 
new  school  have  hastened  to  Detroit  to  study  the 
club,  hoping  to  adopt  it  in  their  own  communities. 
Several  local  efficiency  societies  have  reorganised  on 
the  lines  of  the  Executives  Club.  It  all  goes  to  show 
how  wide-spread  these  ideas  are,  and  how  many  men 
there  are  glad  and  ready  to  put  them  into  practice 
when  the  way  is  pointed  out. 

It  is  a  conclusive  proof  that  we  have  in  the  country 
a  new  type  of  management,  taking  upon  its  shoulders 
the  burden  of  industrial  unrest,  injustice  and  ineffi¬ 
ciency;  that  this  school  believes  that  it  sees  the  road 
out,  and  that  it  is  willing  to  give  the  best  of  itself  in 
opening  the  road. 

That  very  thoughtful  and  experienced  engineer, 
H.  L.  Gantt,  considering  certain  industrial  weak¬ 
nesses  that  have  been  developed  by  our  attempt  to 


OUR  NEW  INDUSTRIAL  LEADER 


33i 


fill  quickly  large  war  orders,  puts  the  responsibility 
squarely  on  management.  “  The  right  to  exercise 
power  without  the  ability  to  exercise  it  properly  ”  is 
in  Mr.  Gantt’s  opinion  the  cause  both  of  the  ineffi¬ 
ciency  that  develops  in  our  manufacturing  as  it  is  of 
the  unrest  in  our  industrial  life.  “  Too  many  of  our 
industrial  plants,”  he  says,  “  are  still  founded  on 
what  has  been  done,  rather  than  on  what  can  be  done. 
The  real  industrial  leader  must  be  guided  by  future 
possibilities,  rather  than  past  performances. 

“  Many  of  those  who  control  our  industries  hold 
their  positions,  not  through  their  ability  to  accom¬ 
plish  results,  but  for  some  other  reason.  In  other 
words,  industrial  control  is  too  often  based  on  fa¬ 
vouritism  or  privilege,  rather  than  on  ability.  This 
hampers  the  healthy,  normal  development  of  indus¬ 
trialism,  which  can  only  reach  its  highest  develop¬ 
ment  when  equal  opportunity  is  secured  to  all,  and 
when  all  reward  is  equitably  proportioned  to  service 
rendered.  In  other  words,  when  industry  becomes 
democratic.” 

The  frank  acceptance  of  this  point  of  view  and  the 
intelligent  attempt  to  meet  it  by  such  undertakings  as 
have  been  described  in  the  preceding  chapters  make 
one  hope  that  we  may  finally  really  democratise  our 
industrial  life.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  I  believe, 
that  these  undertakings  are  making  a  new  man  of  the 
employer.  He  is  discovering  not  only  that  his  busi¬ 
ness  may  be  handled  in  a  scientific  way,  which 
hitherto  he  has  denied,  but  that  business  so  handled 
is  far  more  interesting,  as  it  is  far  more  profitable. 


332 


NEW  IDEALS  IN  BUSINESS 


He  is  seeing  a  significance  and  a  possibility  in  human¬ 
ising  his  relations  that  he  formerly  did  not  dream. 
He  is  developing  the  inspiring  consciousness  that  it 
is  possible  for  him  to  be  not  a  mere  manufacturer  of 
things  for  personal  profit,  but  as  well  a  maker  of  men 
and  women  for  society’s  profit. 


INDEX 


A 

Accidents,  believed  to  be  due  to 
darkness,  9;  study  of,  and  re¬ 
sulting  conclusions,  9;  crusade 
to  prevent,  50  ff. ;  records  of 
industrial,  54;  investigation  of 
causes  of,  58;  in  foundries 
and  metal  works,  58-59;  in 
tanneries,  59 ;  in  cotton  mills, 
60.  See  Safety  movement. 

American  Association  of  Labour 
Legislation,  unemployment  in¬ 
surance  favoured  by,  288. 

American  Railway  Association, 
use  of  intoxicants  prohibited 
by,  120. 

Architecture  of  modern  facto¬ 
ries,  4-8. 

Armco  Bulletin,  factory  paper, 
301-302. 

Art  in  Buttons,  factory  paper, 

303*. 

Athletics  for  factory  workers, 
32-39 ;  effect  of,  on  lives  of 
employes,  295. 

Atterbury,  Grosvenor,  building 
of  houses  for  workingmen  by, 
160-162. 

B 

Babcock,  George  D.,  contribu¬ 
tion  to  unemployment  prob¬ 
lem  by,  274-276;  solution  of 
problem  of  awards  for  sug¬ 
gestions  reached  by,  306. 

Baker  Manufacturing  Company, 
‘profit-sharing  plan  at,  249- 
256. 


Ball-playing  for  factory  work¬ 
ers,  33-35- 

Beech  Nut  Factory,  Canajoharie, 
health  maxims  of,  104-105. 

Bell  Telephone  Company,  pen¬ 
sions  and  disability  and  death 
funds  of,  256. 

Beloit,  workingmen’s  houses  in, 
135-136. 

Boston  Consolidated  Gas  Com¬ 
pany,  profit-sharing  experi¬ 
ment  of,  233-234. 

Brown  and  Bigelow  factory, 
athletic  sports  at,  35-36. 

Brown  and  Sharpe  Manufactur¬ 
ing  Company,  temperatures  at, 
13;  “Safety  First”  at,  57. 

Bull,  R.  A.,  on  effect  of  the 
eight-hour  day,  175. 

Bulletins,  safety,  65-67;  of  Life 
Extension  Institute,  105-106; 
aimed  against  drink,  125-126. 

Bureau  of  Printing  and  Engrav¬ 
ing,  as  an  example  of  factory 
architecture,  7-8. 

Burlingame,  Luther  D.,  on  fac¬ 
tory  safeguards,  57. 

C 

Canneries,  hours  of  work  in, 

I77-I79- 

Chace,  George  A.,  quoted  on 
profit-sharing,  226-227. 

Clarke,  Judge  John  H.,  on  pol¬ 
icy  of  shutting  down  shops, 
268-269. 

Cleanliness,  new  ideas  of,  re¬ 
sulting  from  factory  health 
movement,  292-293. 


333 


334 


INDEX 


Close,  C.  L.,  study  of  accidents 
and  their  prevention  by,  60- 
64. 

Clothcraft  Shop,  girls’  play¬ 
ground  at,  32;  health  work  of, 
95-97;  effect  of  shop  condi¬ 
tions  on  drink  question  shown 
by,  1 14;  hours  of  work  at, 
190;  effect  on  wages,  produc¬ 
tion  costs  and  hours,  of  sci¬ 
entific  management  at,  214- 
216. 

Commonwealth  Steel  Company, 
Fellowship  club  at,  41-42; 
status  of  coloured  men  at,  43 ; 
measures  taken  to  prevent  ac¬ 
cidents  at,  59;  eight-hour  day 
at,  1 74—175 ;  pride  of  workers 
in  product  at,  300-301. 

Commonwealther,  factory  paper, 
301. 

Co-operation,  training  in,  given 
by  new  factory  methods,  310- 
3X5* 

Cotton  mills,  scientific  manage¬ 
ment  in,  18-19;  measures 
taken  to  prevent  accidents  in, 
60;  effect  of  scientific  man¬ 
agement  in,  210-212. 

Crane  Company,  care  of  sick 
employes  by,  86;  use  of  milk 
by,  to  discourage  beer  drink¬ 
ing,  115. 

Crawford,  William  J.,  on  a 
shorter  workday  for  granite 
cutters,  169-172. 

Criminals,  attempted  assimila¬ 
tion  of,  by  new  industrial  or¬ 
der,  320-322. 

Crowell  Publishing  Company, 
scientific  management  applied 
to  rush  season  by,  179-180. 

D 

Delaware  and  Lackawanna  Rail¬ 
road,  safety  work  on,  71-72. 

Diseases,  occupational,  77-79; 
attempts  to  control,  81  ff. ; 


problems  presented  by  minor 
degenerative,  91-96. 

Distrust  of  workmen  for  em¬ 
ployers,  breaking  down  of, 
322. 

Dodge,  J.  M.,  quoted  on  scien¬ 
tific  management,  208-209. 

Dow,  Marcus  A.,  safety  work 
by,  72. 

Drink,  the  industrial  campaign 
against,  no-133. 

Drugs,  use  of,  as  medicines  by 
women  workers,  107-108. 

Dublin,  Louis  I.,  diagram  of  dis¬ 
eases  by,  91-93. 

Duluth,  solution  of  problem  of 
unemployment  at,  278. 

Duncan,  James,  on  effect  of 
shorter  hours,  168-169. 

E 

Eastman  Company  plant,  ath¬ 
letic  and  social  activities  at, 
47- 

Edison  Illuminating  Company, 
health  rules  of,  79-80. 

Education  secured  from  modern 
factory  undertakings,  290-316. 

Efficiency  Society,  New  York 
City,  organisation  of,  328. 

Eight-hour  day,  the,  167-192. 

Employment  bureaus,  public, 
281-287. 

Executives’  Club,  Detroit,  328- 
330. 

F 

Factory  banks  for  employes,  288. 

Fairbanks  Manufacturing  Co., 
reduction  in  accidents  at,  69. 

Fatigue  poisons  due  to  too  long 
hours,  166-167. 

Feiss,  Richard,  work  of,  with 
scientific  management  at 
Clothcraft  Shop,  214-216;  on 
standardizing  of  trade  condi¬ 
tions,  271. 

First  aid  work,  71. 


INDEX 


335 


Fisher,  Boyd,  studies  of  indus¬ 
trial  problems  by,  329. 

Floating  labour,  investigation  of 
question  of,  263  ff. 

Food  vs.  alcohol,  114-115. 

Ford  Motor  Works,  fight  against 
drink  at,  127-129;  effect  of 
profit  sharing  on  steadying  of 
labour  at,  224-225. 

Foundries,  accidents  in,  58-59; 
hours  of  labour  in,  173-175. 

Free  public  employment  bureaus, 
281-287. 

Frick  Coke  Company,  homes  and 
housing  conditions  of  em¬ 
ployes  of,  1 3  7-144. 

G 

Games,  advantages  of,  for  fac¬ 
tory  workers,  32-35. 

Gantt,  H.  L.,  on  the  responsibil¬ 
ity  of  poor  management  for 
industrial  weaknesses,  320- 
321. 

Gardens,  about  factories,  22;  as 
a  factor  in  anti-saloon  cru¬ 
sade,  118;  in  Frick  Coke  Com¬ 
pany  villages,  141-142. 

Gary,  failure  to  provide  homes 
for  unskilled  labourers  at,  159. 

German-American  Button  Com¬ 
pany,  method  of  handling  la¬ 
bour  force  by,  266;  suggestion 
system  at,  303-305 ;  co-opera¬ 
tion  of  management  and  em¬ 
ployes  at,  324-325. 

Germany,  labour  exchanges  in, 
286. 

Goggles,  wearing  of,  to  prevent 
accidents,  67. 

Grand  Rapids,  workingmen’s 
houses  in,  135. 

Granite  cutters,  results  of  shorter 
workday  for,  168-172. 

Grieves,  W.  A.,  investigation  of 
•floating  labourers  by,  265-266. 

“  Grub  ”  better  than  “  grog,” 
1 14. 


*  H 

Hamilton  Watch  Company,  ef¬ 
fect  of  ventilation  at,  24. 

Harvey,  A.  M.,  factory  health 
work  by,  84-85. 

Health  maxims  on  pay  envel¬ 
opes,  104-105. 

Health  movement,  the  industrial, 
77-109 ;  as  a  means  of  educa¬ 
tion,  292-295. 

Hoffman,  F.  L.,  statistics  by,  54. 

Homestead  Steel  Mills,  beauty 
introduced  into,  22. 

Hours  of  working  day,  163-192. 

Housing  of  workmen,  134-162. 

Humanitarians,  aid  given  to  dis¬ 
charged  prisoners  by  associa¬ 
tion  called,  321. 


I 

Illinois  Steel  Company,  safety 
work  by,  65-68. 

Indian  Hill,  industrial  town  of, 
156-159. 

Industrial  universities,  6. 

Information,  establishment  of 
Division  of,  by  Federal  Gov¬ 
ernment,  286-287. 

International  Harvester  Com¬ 
pany,  lighting  of  plants  of,  9- 
11 ;  device  for  carrying  off 
dirt  at,  19-20;  reduction  of 
accidents  at,  68-69  >  pension 
fund  for  employes  at,  256. 

International  Typographical  Un¬ 
ion,  co-operation  in  work  for 
discharged  prisoners  refused 
by,  322. 

I.  W.  W.,  the,  261. 


J 

Jones,  Sam  (“Golden  Rule”), 
quoted  on  working  conditions, 
97-98 ;  vacations  to  employes 
inaugurated  by,  98. 


336 


INDEX 


K 

Kahn  Sc  Wilby,  architects  of  De¬ 
troit  factories,  5. 

Kansas,  automobiles  and  drink 
in,  126. 

Kansas  City,  workers’  homes  in, 
134. 

Kendall,  H.  P.,  on  standardiz¬ 
ing  of  conditions  in  printing 
and  publishing  lines,  270;  va¬ 
riety  in  labour  advocated  by, 
272. 

L 

Labour  exchanges,  281-287. 

Lake  Carriers’  Association,  tem¬ 
perance  work  of,  116-117. 

Leclaire,  Indiana,  town  manage¬ 
ment  at,  145 ;  stock  ownership 
plan  at,  231-233. 

Life  Extension  Institute,  investi¬ 
gations  by,  91,  93;  health  bul¬ 
letins  and  work  of,  105-107. 

Lighting  of  factories,  8-12;  re¬ 
lation  between  output  and,  23- 
24. 

Lunching  places  for  workers,  42- 
44. 

Lynch,  Thomas,  leader  in  re¬ 
demption  of  Frick  Coke  Com¬ 
pany  villages,  139. 

M 

McMurtry,  George  G.,  founder 
of  town  of  Vandergrift,  147- 
155;  on  the  eight-hour  day, 
172-173. 

Manufacturing,  development  of 
safety  appliances  in,  55-69; 
leading  states  engaged  in, 
121  n. 

Medical  inspection  in  factories, 
102-103. 

Metropolitan  Life  Insurance 
Company,  care  of  tubercular 
employes  by,  87-89. 


Milk  a  better  drink  than  beer, 
115- 

Miners,  conditions  in  homes  of, 
137-142- 

Mines,  “Safety  First”  principle 
in,  51-52* 

Minneapolis  Industrial  Associa¬ 
tion,  industrial  town  centre 
planned  by,  7. 

Minnesota,  safety  law  in,  57. 

Monotony  of  work,  relieving 
the,  44-46. 

Morrison,  C.  J.,  cited  on  the 
eight-hour  day,  191. 

Mount  McGregor,  sanatorium 
of  Metropolitan  Life  Insur¬ 
ance  Company  on,  87. 

Moving  pictures,  an  aid  in  ac¬ 
cident  prevention,  72. 

Museums  of  safety,  51. 

N 

National  Cash  Register  works, 
gardening  at,  23;  outdoor 
sports  at,  37-38. 

National  Civic  Federation,  work 
of,  for  women  workers,  101. 

National  Lamp  Company,  fac¬ 
tory  buildings  of,  5-7. 

National  Tube  Works,  improved 
working  conditions  illustrated 
at,  75. 

Nela  Park  factory  buildings, 
5-7- 

Nelson  Manufacturing  Company, 
stock  ownership  plan  of,  231- 
233. 

New  England  Butt  Company, 
scientific  management  at,  220. 

New  York  Central  Railroad, 
safety  crusade  on,  72. 

New  York  City,  safety  exhibit 
in,  57. 

Nolland,  Lloyd,  industrial  bet¬ 
terment  work  of,  109. 

O 

Occupational  diseases,  77-79;  at¬ 
tempts  to  control,  81  ff. 


INDEX 


337 


Ohio  Industrial  Commission,  on 
physical  examination  of  em¬ 
ployes,  89. 

Order,  ideas  of,  in  modern  fac¬ 
tories,  16-21;  relation  between 
output  and,  25. 

Outings  of  employes,  31-32. 


P 

Pauly  of  Seattle,  story  of,  279- 
280. 

Pensions  for  employes,  256-257. 

Pfister  &  Vogel  Leather  Com¬ 
pany,  shop  lighting  by,  11- 
12;  physical  examinations  of 
employes  by,  85-86. 

Phrenology  and  psychology,  test 
of  use  of,  in  selecting  em¬ 
ployes,  318-320. 

Physical  examinations  of  em¬ 
ployes,  81-85;  of  employes, 
state  supervision  of,  91. 

Pilgrim  Laundry,  Brooklyn, 
benefits  of  social  activities  at, 
45;  vacation  idea  developed 
at,  99-100;  solution  of  ques¬ 
tion  of  working  hours  by,  181- 
189;  building  of,  183-184; 
meetings  of  management  and 
employes  at,  324. 

Plimpton  Press,  scientific  man¬ 
agement  at,  220. 

Price,  C.  W.,  welfare  work  of, 
10-11. 

Procter  &  Gamble,  temperance 
measures  taken  by,  123;  stock 
ownership  plan  of,  238-249. 

Profit  sharing,  results  of  plans 
of,  224,  226-227;  reasons  for 
failures  of  some  plans  for, 
228-230;  stock  ownership  and 
partnerships  as  forms  of,  230- 
256. 

Progress  Club  at  German-Amer- 

.  ican  Button  Company,  324-325. 

Psychological  tests  for  choosing 
employes,  question  of  value  of, 
318-320. 


Pullman,  Illinois,  failure  of,  due 
to  over-fraternalism,  146. 

Q 

Quack  remedies,  use  of,  by 
women  workers,  108. 

Quality  Club  of  Hickey-Freeman 
Company,  Rochester,  325-326. 

R 

Railroads,  records  of  accidents 
on,  54;  cost  of  accidents  on, 
68;  safety  crusades  on,  69,  71- 

72* 

Redfield,  William  C.,  industrial 
creed  of,  199-202. 

S 

Safety  movement  in  workshops, 
50-76;  effect  of,  on  drink 
question,  in;  as  a  means  of 
education,  290-292 ;  ability  to 
lead  and  direct  cultivated  by, 
307;  training  in  co-operation 
given  by,  311. 

Saloons,  fighting  the,  110-133. 

Savings  funds  for  employes,  288. 

Schwarze,  Mr.,  handbook  on 
shop  lighting  by,  12;  quoted, 
24. 

Schneider,  Dean,  use  of  phrenol¬ 
ogy  and  psychology  in  choos¬ 
ing  employes  tested  by,  318- 
320. 

Scientific  management,  results 
of,  16-21;  effect  of,  on  pro¬ 
duction,  25-27;  at  Pilgrim 
Laundry,  187-188;  tendency  to 
reduction  of  hours  one  result 
of,  189-190;  and  the  wage 
question,  193;  applied  to 
planning  and  routing  orders, 
204-205 ;  value  as  a  contribu¬ 
tion  to  the  wage  system,  221 ; 
problem  of  unequal  distribu¬ 
tion  of  labour  solved  by,  274; 
solid,  definite  and  far-reach- 


33§ 


INDEX 


ing  training  which  results  to 
workers  from,  297;  makes  all 
tasks  skilled  labour,  297-298; 
encouragement  of  suggestions 
under,  302-306. 

Scott  paper  factory,  uniform  de¬ 
vised  for  women  employes  at, 
294. 

Seasonal  trades,  working  hours 
in,  177-181. 

Short  time,  unemployment  due 
to,  266  ff. ;  handling  of,  to  best 
advantage,  276-279. 

Sickness,  money  losses  due  to, 
94-  ■ 

Stabilisation  of  labour,  258-289. 

State  supervision  of  physical  ex¬ 
amination  of  employes,  91. 

Stock-ownership  plans  as  a  form 
of  profit  sharing,  230-256. 

Suggestions  by  employes,  en¬ 
couragement  of,  302-306. 

Sunday,  Billy,  fight  on  “  booze  ” 
by,  123-124. 


T 

Tanneries,  accidents  in,  59. 

“Task  and  bonus”  plan,  207. 

Taylor,  Frederick,  on  reasons 
for  failure  of  many  profit- 
sharing  plans,  228. 

Temperature  in  factories,  12-13. 

Tennessee  Coal,  Iron  and  Rail¬ 
road  Company,  results  of 
health  work  of,  108-109. 

Thompson,  C.  Bertrand,  quoted 
on  factory  reorganisation,  308- 
309. 

Thompson,  Sanford  E.,  on  re¬ 
duction  of  hours  in  scien¬ 
tifically  managed  shops,  190; 
on  the  task  and  bonus  plan, 
207-208. 

Towne,  Henry  B.,  on  scientific 
management,  209. 

Trade  unions,  ill-founded  objec¬ 
tion  of,  to  scientific  manage¬ 
ment,  208,  309-310. 


Trespassing  on  railroads,  efforts 
to  stop,  72. 

Tubercular  employes,  care  of, 
86-87. 

U 

Unemployment,  problem  of,  259- 
289. 

Unemployment  insurance,  288. 

United  Shoe  Machinery  Com¬ 
pany,  outdoor  life  for  em¬ 
ployes  encouraged  by,  38. 

United  States  government,  la¬ 
bour  exchange  established  by, 
286-287. 

United  States  Steel  Corporation, 
“Safety  First”  principle  pro¬ 
moted  by,  52;  Museum  of 
Safety  of,  55;  stock-ownership 
plan  of,  for  employes,  235- 
239;  pension  fund  of,  256. 

V 

Vacation  Committee,  New  York, 
handling  of  unemployment 
question  by,  280-281. 

Vacation  Savings  Bank,  inaug¬ 
uration  of,  102. 

Vacations  for  employes,  98-102. 

Vandergrift,  Pa.,  example  of 
beautifying  of  factory  sur¬ 
roundings  at,  22-23;  results  of 
no-liquor  policy  at,  118-119; 
account  of,  as  a  successful 
workingman’s  town,  146-155; 
the  eight-hour  day  at,  172-173. 

Ventilation  of  factories,  9,  12- 
13;  relation  between  output 
and,  24-25. 

W 

Wages  question,  193-22 1. 

Wallis  &  Goodwillie,  architects 
of  Nela  Park  buildings,  5. 

Watertown  Arsenal,  results  of 
scientific  management  at,  18, 
213,  217. 


INDEX 


Welfare  work  in  factories,  14- 
15;  results  of,  26-28. 

Williams,  James  H.,  wage  pol¬ 
icy  of,  196-199;  working  con¬ 
ditions  at  factory  of,  202. 

Wisconsin  Industrial  Commis¬ 
sion,  industrial  standards  es¬ 
tablished  by,  11,  12;  safety 
bulletins  published  by,  56 ; 
plan  for  hours  of  work  in  can¬ 
neries  devised  by,  177-179. 


339 

Worcester  Corset  Company, 
health  work  of,  104. 

Workmen’s  compensation  laws, 
73- 

Y 

Young,  Robert  J.,  safety  bulle¬ 
tins  by,  65-67. 

Youngstown  Sheet  and  Tube 
Company,  study  of  accidents 
at,  9. 


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